CDS (I) 2023 General Knowledge · Question 34 of 120

Correct — B, Assam Rifles. It is the one Indian force whose command is split between two ministries. Administrative control — recruitment, pay, cadre, infrastructure — rests with the Ministry of Home Affairs, while operational control rests with the Indian Army under the Ministry of Defence. In practice that means the force is paid for from one ministry's budget and deployed on the orders of another, and it is commanded by an officer of the Indian Army. Nothing comparable applies to the other three. The Central Reserve Police Force, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police and the Central Industrial Security Force are each raised, administered and deployed under the Ministry of Home Affairs alone. The Assam Rifles is also the oldest of the lot by a wide margin: it was raised in 1835 as the Cachar Levy to guard settlements and tea gardens in the Assam frontier, became the Assam Frontier Police in 1883 and the Assam Military Police in 1891, and took its present name in 1917. That long history as a frontier force operating alongside the army in the North East is why the divided arrangement grew up in the first place.

• (a)Central Reserve Police Force — The largest of the central armed police forces, and wholly under the Ministry of Home Affairs. It has no operational chain running to the Army.
• (c)Indo-Tibetan Border Police — A border-guarding force for the frontier with China, again entirely under the Ministry of Home Affairs. Guarding a border alongside the Army is not the same thing as being commanded by it.
• (d)Central Industrial Security Force — Raised to protect industrial undertakings, and later airports and other installations. It is a Home Ministry force throughout, and the furthest of the three from any army connection.

India's central armed police forces — the Assam Rifles, the Border Security Force, the Central Reserve Police Force, the Central Industrial Security Force, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, the Sashastra Seema Bal and the National Security Guard — are all under the Ministry of Home Affairs, and are distinct from the armed forces under the Ministry of Defence. The Assam Rifles is the exception that proves the rule: it belongs administratively to the Home Ministry but takes its operational orders through the Army.

The word to notice in the stem is 'only'. A question of this shape is testing an exception, so the productive move is to ask which of the four names differs in kind from the others rather than to weigh them one by one. Three are ordinary Home Ministry forces with familiar mandates; one has been operating in the North East since before the Revolt of 1857 and works under Army command. Something worth carrying into an interview: the split arrangement has been argued over for years, since a force cannot easily be planned for by a ministry that does not deploy it. The examiner is not asking for a view on that argument, only for the fact that the split exists.

• The Assam Rifles is under the administrative control of the Ministry of Home Affairs and the operational control of the Indian Army under the Ministry of Defence.
• It was raised in 1835 as the Cachar Levy, making it the oldest of India's central armed police forces.
• It was renamed the Assam Frontier Police in 1883, the Assam Military Police in 1891, and the Assam Rifles in 1917.
• The Central Reserve Police Force, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police and the Central Industrial Security Force are all wholly under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
• The central armed police forces are separate from the armed forces; the Assam Rifles is the only one commanded through the Army.

• Calling every central armed police force 'paramilitary'; officially they are central armed police forces, and the loose word is what makes the question's phrasing work.
• Assuming a force that guards a border must be under the Ministry of Defence; border guarding forces sit with the Home Ministry.
• Confusing the Assam Rifles with the Assam Police or with the Army's Assam Regiment.

As a which-force item on control, mandate or year of raising, or as a match between a force and the border it guards.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Assam Rifles was originally raised in 1835 under which one of the following names?

  • (a)Cachar Levy
  • (b)Frontier Corps
  • (c)Naga Levy
  • (d)Assam Light Infantry

  Answer(a) Cachar Levy — raised in 1835 to protect settlements and tea gardens on the Assam frontier, and renamed the Assam Rifles in 1917.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which one of the following forces guards India's border with China?

  • (a)Border Security Force
  • (b)Sashastra Seema Bal
  • (c)Indo-Tibetan Border Police
  • (d)Central Industrial Security Force

  Answer(c) Indo-Tibetan Border Police — a Ministry of Home Affairs force, as are the Border Security Force on the Pakistan and Bangladesh borders and the Sashastra Seema Bal on the Nepal and Bhutan borders.