MPSC 2025 Prelims Paper-I · Question 82 of 100

Correct — option (4), 'Only B, C, D'. 24 January 1950 was the last day the Constituent Assembly sat, two days before the Constitution came into force, and it packed three distinct pieces of business into that final sitting. Rajendra Prasad, presiding, announced that Jana Gana Mana would be the National Anthem (statement B), and that Vande Mataram, the song that had carried the freedom movement, would be honoured equally with it as the National Song (statement C) — both adopted on the Assembly's own authority that day, without a separate constitutional article, which is exactly why they are remembered as decisions rather than as provisions of the Constitution's text. The same sitting also saw the Constituent Assembly, functioning for this one purpose as an electoral college, elect Rajendra Prasad as the first President of India (statement D), a mandate he took up two days later on 26 January 1950. Statement A is the item that breaks the set: the National Flag was not adopted on this date at all. The Constituent Assembly had already adopted the tricolour as independent India's national flag on 22 July 1947, more than two and a half years earlier, in the run-up to Independence — a separate, earlier decision that has nothing to do with 24 January 1950. Because A does not belong with B, C and D, the only combination that survives is B, C and D together, which is option (4).

• (1)Only A, B, C — Keeps the flag and drops the President's election. The flag is the error here — it was adopted on 22 July 1947, not 24 January 1950 — while dropping D wrongly excludes the one action of 24 January 1950 that is arguably the best remembered of the three: the Assembly's election of Rajendra Prasad as India's first President.
• (2)Only A, B, D — Correctly keeps the anthem and the presidential election but drops the national song and keeps the flag. Vande Mataram's elevation to National Song, announced in the same address as the anthem, is as much a part of 24 January 1950 as Jana Gana Mana's adoption is — dropping one while keeping the other is inconsistent, and the flag still does not belong on this date regardless.
• (3)Only A, C, D — Correctly keeps the song and the presidential election but drops the anthem and keeps the flag. Jana Gana Mana and Vande Mataram were adopted together, in the same announcement, so treating one as belonging to 24 January 1950 while excluding the other breaks a pairing that happened as a single act — and the flag, again, belongs to 22 July 1947.

24 January 1950 was the Constituent Assembly's final sitting before the Constitution of India came into force two days later, on 26 January 1950. The Assembly used that last sitting for three things that fall outside the Constitution's own numbered articles: it adopted Jana Gana Mana as the National Anthem, gave Vande Mataram equal honour as the National Song, and elected Dr. Rajendra Prasad as the first President of India. None of these three required a constitutional amendment because none of them is written into the Constitution's text as an enumerated article — the anthem and the song rest on that day's declaration by the Assembly's President, and the presidential election was a one-time act performed by the Assembly sitting as an electoral college for the transition.

The National Flag is the one national symbol that predates the Republic altogether — the Constituent Assembly adopted it on 22 July 1947, days before Independence on 15 August 1947, so that free India would have a flag from the moment of transfer of power. MPSC and UPSC both use this date gap as the core trap in questions about India's national symbols: candidates who correctly know that the flag, anthem, song and first President all belong to 'the founding of the Republic' often collapse three different dates — 22 July 1947, 26 November 1949 (when the Constitution was adopted by the Assembly) and 24 January 1950 (the Assembly's final sitting, with the signing of the two authenticated copies of the Constitution and the anthem/song/President decisions) — into a single moment.

• 24 January 1950 was the Constituent Assembly's last sitting; the Constitution came into force two days later, on 26 January 1950.
• Jana Gana Mana was adopted as the National Anthem on 24 January 1950, in an announcement by the Assembly's President, Dr. Rajendra Prasad.
• Vande Mataram was given equal status as the National Song in the same announcement on 24 January 1950.
• The Constituent Assembly elected Dr. Rajendra Prasad as the first President of India on 24 January 1950; he assumed office on 26 January 1950.
• The National Flag was adopted by the Constituent Assembly earlier, on 22 July 1947, ahead of Independence on 15 August 1947 — a separate and distinctly earlier decision.

• Assuming the flag, anthem, song and first President were all decided on the same date because they are all 'founding of the Republic' facts — the flag is nearly two and a half years earlier
• Confusing the date the Constitution was adopted by the Assembly (26 November 1949) with the date it came into force (26 January 1950) with the Assembly's final sitting (24 January 1950)
• Forgetting that Rajendra Prasad's election as President on 24 January 1950 was a one-time act of the outgoing Constituent Assembly, not an instance of the regular electoral-college procedure used for every President since

MPSC and UPSC both like a statement-selection question that bundles two or three genuinely same-date facts about the Constituent Assembly's final sitting with one plausible-but-earlier fact — almost always the National Flag's adoption in July 1947 — to see whether a candidate is tracking exact dates or just a general sense of 'founding events'. The safeguard is to hold a short, ordered timeline of the Constituent Assembly's key dates rather than a flat list of 'things that happened when India became a republic'.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The National Flag of India was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on which date ?

  • (a)22 July 1947
  • (b)26 November 1949
  • (c)24 January 1950
  • (d)26 January 1950

  Answer(a) 22 July 1947 — adopted ahead of Independence on 15 August 1947, well before the Constituent Assembly's later decisions on the National Anthem, National Song and first President on 24 January 1950.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which two compositions were together given the honour of India's National Anthem and National Song respectively, in an announcement made on 24 January 1950 ?

  • (a)Vande Mataram and Sare Jahan Se Achha
  • (b)Jana Gana Mana and Vande Mataram
  • (c)Jana Gana Mana and Sare Jahan Se Achha
  • (d)Vande Mataram and Jana Gana Mana

  Answer(b) Jana Gana Mana and Vande Mataram — Jana Gana Mana was adopted as the National Anthem and Vande Mataram was given equal status as the National Song, in the same announcement by Dr. Rajendra Prasad at the Constituent Assembly's final sitting on 24 January 1950.