EPFO APFC 2023 General Studies · Question 67 of 120

Correct — A, (a) the code row that reads A B C D over 4 1 2 3. Written out, it says that the Centre of Indian Trade Unions goes with the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Indian National Trade Union Congress with the Indian National Congress, the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh with the Bharatiya Janata Party, and the All India Trade Union Congress with the Communist Party of India. Each of those four is the standard affiliation. The Indian National Trade Union Congress was set up in May 1947 by leaders close to the Congress, in reaction to the leftward drift of the older All India Trade Union Congress, and it has been the Congress-aligned centre ever since. The All India Trade Union Congress, founded in 1920 and the oldest central federation in the country, passed under communist influence between the wars and remained with the Communist Party of India after the split in the communist movement in 1964. The Centre of Indian Trade Unions was formed in 1970 out of that same split and is the federation associated with the Communist Party of India (Marxist). The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh was founded in 1955 at Bhopal by Dattopant Thengadi, a pracharak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh; it belongs to the Sangh Parivar and is conventionally placed with the Bharatiya Janata Party, though it has always insisted that it is organisationally independent of any political party and it predates both the Jana Sangh's labour work and the Bharatiya Janata Party itself. Two facts are enough to answer without checking all four rows. The two communist federations are the only place a candidate can go wrong on ideology, and knowing that the Centre of Indian Trade Unions belongs to the Marxist party removes the two code rows that begin with 3. Of the two that survive, one sends the Indian National Trade Union Congress to the Bharatiya Janata Party, which the name itself forbids. The remaining row is the answer.

• (b)A B C D 4 2 1 3 — This row gets the two communist federations right — the Centre of Indian Trade Unions with the Marxist party and the All India Trade Union Congress with the Communist Party of India — and then swaps the middle pair, sending the Indian National Trade Union Congress to the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh to the Indian National Congress. That is the easiest error in the set to catch, because the name of the federation carries the answer: a body called the Indian National Trade Union Congress was founded in 1947 as the Congress party's own labour centre. This is the classic near-miss row of a matching item, correct on the entries a candidate is least sure of and wrong on the one that needs no recall at all. Check the entry you know best first; it eliminates more options per second than any other.
• (c)A B C D 3 2 1 4 — This row reverses both communist affiliations, giving the Centre of Indian Trade Unions to the Communist Party of India and the All India Trade Union Congress to the Communist Party of India (Marxist), and it also swaps the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party entries in the middle. The chronology alone settles the communist half. The All India Trade Union Congress dates from 1920 and is therefore older than the Communist Party of India (Marxist), which came into existence only with the split of 1964, so the older federation could not have been founded as that party's labour wing; the Centre of Indian Trade Unions, formed in 1970 after the split, is the newer body and belongs to the newer party. Whenever a matching item pairs organisations with parties, sort both lists by date before pairing them.
• (d)A B C D 3 1 2 4 — This row gets the middle two right, placing the Indian National Trade Union Congress with the Congress and the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh with the Bharatiya Janata Party, and then reverses the two communist entries, sending the Centre of Indian Trade Unions to the Communist Party of India and the All India Trade Union Congress to the Communist Party of India (Marxist). It is the mirror image of the correct row and the most dangerous option for a candidate who works from the easy entries only, since everything that is easy about the item is right here. The safeguard is to treat a matching question as needing one confirmation more than the number of options you have eliminated: after the two straightforward rows agree, the item is still undecided, and it is the communist pair that has to be resolved to finish it.

India's organised labour movement is built around central trade union organisations, each with a political lineage. The All India Trade Union Congress, founded in Bombay in 1920 with Lala Lajpat Rai presiding over its first session, was the first, prompted in part by the need to nominate workers' delegates to the International Labour Conference after the International Labour Organization was created in 1919; it came under communist influence between the wars. The Indian National Trade Union Congress followed in May 1947 as the Congress-aligned centre, the Hind Mazdoor Sabha in 1948 from the socialists, and the United Trade Union Congress in 1949. The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh was founded in 1955 by Dattopant Thengadi and grew into one of the largest federations in the country. The division in the communist movement in 1964, which produced the Communist Party of India (Marxist) alongside the Communist Party of India, split the labour movement as well: the older All India Trade Union Congress stayed with the Communist Party of India, and the Centre of Indian Trade Unions was formed in 1970 by the Marxists. The affiliations matter administratively, not just politically, because the Ministry of Labour and Employment recognises central trade union organisations on the basis of verified membership, and recognition governs their nomination to tripartite bodies such as the Indian Labour Conference and to India's workers' delegation at the International Labour Conference.

This is the only question in the paper printed in the Match List form, with a lettered List-I, a numbered List-II and four code rows beneath, and the form deserves a technique of its own. The options are not four independent claims but four permutations of the same pairing, so the work is done on the lists and not on the options: settle one entry, strike out every row that contradicts it, and repeat until one row is left. Here two entries are enough, and it matters which two you start with. Beginning with the Indian National Trade Union Congress is tempting because it is certain, but it only halves the field; beginning with the Centre of Indian Trade Unions also halves it, and the two together finish the item. A second point of technique concerns what the code rows look like. Because they consist of nothing but numerals, there is no text in them to reason about, and a candidate who tries to compare rows visually will make transcription errors under time pressure. Write the pairing you believe in as four numbers in the margin — here 4, 1, 2, 3 — and then look for that string among the rows, rather than reading each row and testing it against memory. Note finally that this booklet prints List-I, List-II, their bracketed headings and the word Code in italics, and that the scanned page carries a stray printed dot after one list entry which is a mark on the paper rather than punctuation.

• The All India Trade Union Congress, founded in Bombay in 1920, is the oldest central trade union organisation in India and remained with the Communist Party of India after the communist split of 1964.
• The Centre of Indian Trade Unions was formed in 1970 following that split and is the federation associated with the Communist Party of India (Marxist), which itself came into being in 1964.
• The Indian National Trade Union Congress was founded in May 1947 by leaders close to the Congress, as a counterweight to the leftward drift of the All India Trade Union Congress, and is the Congress-aligned central federation.
• The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh was founded in 1955 at Bhopal by Dattopant Thengadi, a pracharak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh; it belongs to the Sangh Parivar, is conventionally listed with the Bharatiya Janata Party, and maintains that it is organisationally independent of any political party.
• Other central federations include the Hind Mazdoor Sabha of 1948, the United Trade Union Congress of 1949 and the Self-Employed Women's Association registered at Ahmedabad in 1972 under Ela Bhatt.
• The Ministry of Labour and Employment recognises central trade union organisations on the basis of verified membership, and recognition determines nomination to tripartite forums such as the Indian Labour Conference and to India's delegation to the International Labour Conference.

• Reversing the two communist federations; the All India Trade Union Congress of 1920 is older than the Communist Party of India (Marxist) of 1964 and stayed with the Communist Party of India, while the Centre of Indian Trade Unions of 1970 belongs to the Marxist party
• Stopping after confirming the two easy entries; in this item the Congress and Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh rows are the same in two different code rows, and only the communist pair separates them
• Reading the code rows visually instead of writing your own pairing down first; rows made only of numerals are easy to misread under time pressure
• Treating the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh as a creation of the Bharatiya Janata Party; it was founded in 1955, decades before that party existed, and describes itself as independent of any party while belonging to the same ideological family
• Assuming every large union is a central federation; recognition as a central trade union organisation depends on verified membership across States and industries, and it is what gives a body its place in tripartite forums

The labour block of this paper returns to the central trade union organisations more than once, and asks them in two shapes. One is a chronology of foundations, where the technique is to fix the oldest and the youngest and eliminate. The other is this one, a pairing of federations with parties, where the technique is to settle the entries that split the option set most evenly. Because the affiliations are stable and few, the same handful of facts answers both shapes: 1920 and the Communist Party of India for the All India Trade Union Congress, 1947 and the Congress for the Indian National Trade Union Congress, 1955 and the Sangh Parivar for the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, and 1970 and the Marxist party for the Centre of Indian Trade Unions. A candidate who holds those four pairs of facts can answer any question the paper is likely to build on this material, whether it is printed as a Match List, as a sequence or as a single-fact item.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Centre of Indian Trade Unions, formed in 1970, emerged from a division in which one of the following movements?

  • (a)The socialist movement, following the formation of the Praja Socialist Party
  • (b)The communist movement, following the split of 1964
  • (c)The Congress labour movement, following the emergency of 1975
  • (d)The Sangh Parivar, following the founding of the Bharatiya Janata Party in 1980

  Answer(b) The communist movement, following the split of 1964 — the division that produced the Communist Party of India (Marxist) alongside the Communist Party of India also divided the labour movement, and the Centre of Indian Trade Unions was formed in 1970 as the federation associated with the Marxist party, while the older All India Trade Union Congress of 1920 remained with the Communist Party of India.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh was founded in 1955 by which one of the following?

  • (a)Dattopant Thengadi
  • (b)N. M. Joshi
  • (c)V. V. Giri
  • (d)S. A. Dange

  Answer(a) Dattopant Thengadi — a pracharak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, he founded the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh at Bhopal in 1955, and it grew into one of the largest central trade union organisations in the country. N. M. Joshi led the moderate group that left the All India Trade Union Congress in 1929, V. V. Giri was a trade unionist who later became President of India, and S. A. Dange was a leading figure of the communist labour movement.