MPSC 2021 Prelims Paper-I · Question 97 of 100

Correct — option (3), statement (c). Read the closing line first, because this question is negative and its negation arrives at the END rather than at the beginning. The stem opens with the neutral words 'Consider the following statements', three statements follow, and only then comes the ask: which is the INCORRECT statement — the word printed in bold in the English column, and अयोग्य in bold in the Marathi. A candidate who reads the opening line, checks the statements for truth and marks the true ones has answered a question the paper did not ask. What is wanted is the single false statement, and it is statement (c). Umang Narula was never the Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh. He is an Indian Administrative Service officer of the 1989 batch who was appointed ADVISOR to the Lieutenant Governor of the Union Territory of Ladakh with effect from 31 October 2019 — a senior civil-service post assisting the Lieutenant Governor, not the constitutional office itself. The first Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh was Radha Krishna Mathur, a retired officer of the 1977 batch who had served as Defence Secretary and then as Chief Information Commissioner until November 2018, and who was sworn in on 31 October 2019; he held the office when this paper was written on 23 January 2022. The other two statements are both true, which is what the answer requires. Statement (a) is correct: the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 took effect on 31 October 2019 and created two Union Territories out of the former State, Jammu and Kashmir with a legislature and Ladakh without one. Statement (b) is also correct: at that time the Union Territory of Ladakh consisted of exactly two districts, Leh and Kargil, both of which had been constituted in 1979; further districts were carved out only years after this paper was written, so the statement was accurate on the day of the examination. With (a) and (b) true and (c) false, the incorrect statement is (c) and the answer is option (3).

• (1)(a) — Statement (a) is TRUE, so it cannot be the answer to a question asking for the incorrect statement. Ladakh became a Union Territory on 31 October 2019, the appointed day under the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, which Parliament had passed in August 2019 alongside the resolution and the presidential order by which the special provisions of Article 370 were rendered inoperative. The Act divided the former State of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories: Jammu and Kashmir, which has a legislative assembly, and Ladakh, which has none and is administered through its Lieutenant Governor. Choosing this option means either misreading the date or, far more commonly, misreading the ask — treating a true statement as the thing wanted when the closing line asks for the false one.
• (2)(b) — Statement (b) is also TRUE as at the date of this paper, so it too cannot be the answer. When Ladakh was constituted as a Union Territory on 31 October 2019 it comprised two districts, Leh and Kargil, both formed in 1979, and it still comprised only those two when the paper was written on 23 January 2022; the creation of further districts came later. The option is attractive to a candidate who has read more recent news about Ladakh's administrative divisions and applies it to a paper written in early 2022. That is a general hazard with questions about a fast-changing subject, and the rule is to answer as at the date of the examination: a statement that was accurate then remains the paper's correct statement even if the facts have since moved on.
• (4)None of the above — This option asserts that none of the three statements is incorrect — in other words, that all three are true. It fails because statement (c) is demonstrably false: Umang Narula held the post of Advisor to the Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh from 31 October 2019, while the office of Lieutenant Governor itself was held by Radha Krishna Mathur, who was sworn in as the first holder on the same day. The confusion between the two posts is the whole point of the question, and it is a realistic one, because an Advisor to a Lieutenant Governor is a senior officer whose name appears in news reports about the administration of the territory. It is worth noting that the exact phrase 'None of the above' is printed only once in the English column of this paper, at this question — and only because Q77 and Q79 drop the article and print 'None of above'. The Marathi column writes वरीलपैकी नाही on all three, so for a मराठी reader this option is not distinctive at all; the Commission spells its escape options in many different ways elsewhere, so a candidate should read each one rather than recognising a familiar form.

The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 is the statute that reorganised the former State. Following the presidential order and the parliamentary resolution of 5 August 2019 by which the special provisions of Article 370 were made inoperative, Parliament passed the Act in August 2019 and appointed 31 October 2019 as the day on which it would take effect. From that day the State ceased to exist and two Union Territories came into being. Jammu and Kashmir is a Union Territory WITH a legislative assembly, on the model of Puducherry, so it has a Council of Ministers and a Chief Minister as well as a Lieutenant Governor. Ladakh is a Union Territory WITHOUT a legislature, administered by the President acting through an administrator designated as Lieutenant Governor under Article 239, with two Autonomous Hill Development Councils, at Leh and at Kargil, providing the elected element of local administration. Ladakh's first Lieutenant Governor was Radha Krishna Mathur, appointed on the day the territory came into existence, and Umang Narula was appointed Advisor to him from the same date. The two districts, Leh and Kargil, were both constituted in 1979, and the territory continued with those two until additional districts were created several years later. The distinction between an office created by the Constitution and a post created to assist its holder is the fact this question is testing, and it recurs across Indian administration — an Adviser to a Governor under President's rule, a Principal Secretary to a Chief Minister, a Chief Adviser to a Lieutenant Governor.

Negative questions are the single most reliable source of avoidable loss in an MPSC paper, and this one is placed to catch a tired candidate: it is the ninety-seventh of a hundred questions, its opening line is neutral, and the word that reverses the whole task is the last word of the last line. Seven questions in this paper carry a negative or exclusionary stem, and the emphasis is not applied uniformly across them: five, this one among them, print the reversing word in bold in both language columns, one bolds it in the English column alone, and one bolds it in neither. The emphasis is real where it exists, and it disappears in any digital reproduction of the paper, which is why a card must restate it — and why the closing line has to be read even when nothing on the page shouts. The discipline that prevents the loss is mechanical rather than intellectual. Read the final line of any statement question before evaluating a single statement; mark each statement true or false on the page; then apply the ask. Candidates who evaluate first and read the ask afterwards tend to answer the question they expected rather than the one printed. The subject matter here also carries a second lesson. Questions about offices and appointments should be answered as at the date of the examination, and a candidate must be able to distinguish the constitutional office — Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Administrator — from the advisory and secretarial posts that surround it, because news reports name both and the paper will ask about only one.

• The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 took effect on 31 October 2019, dividing the former State into two Union Territories — Jammu and Kashmir, which has a legislative assembly, and Ladakh, which has none.
• Radha Krishna Mathur, a retired 1977-batch officer who had been Chief Information Commissioner until November 2018, was sworn in as the FIRST Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh on 31 October 2019 and held the office when this paper was written.
• Umang Narula, an Indian Administrative Service officer of the 1989 batch, was appointed ADVISOR to the Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh with effect from 31 October 2019. He was never the Lieutenant Governor, which is what makes statement (c) the incorrect one.
• At the date of this paper the Union Territory of Ladakh consisted of exactly two districts, Leh and Kargil, both constituted in 1979; further districts were created only years later.
• The question is NEGATIVE and its negation is in the closing line, not the opening one: 'Which is the incorrect statement ?', with 'incorrect' printed in bold in English and अयोग्य in bold in Marathi. The exact phrase 'None of the above' appears once in the English column, at this question — Q77 and Q79 drop the article — while the Marathi writes वरीलपैकी नाही on all three.

• Answering the question the stem seems to ask rather than the one it does ask. The opening line is neutral and the word 'incorrect' arrives only in the closing line, in bold
• Confusing the Advisor to a Lieutenant Governor with the Lieutenant Governor. Umang Narula held the first post from 31 October 2019; R. K. Mathur held the second from the same date
• Answering from today's facts rather than from the position at the date of the paper. Ladakh had exactly two districts when this examination was written
• Assuming both new Union Territories were constituted alike. Jammu and Kashmir has a legislative assembly; Ladakh does not
• Treating an escape option as a familiar formula. This paper spells such options in many different ways; the exact English phrase 'None of the above' appears only here, though the Marathi prints वरीलपैकी नाही on three questions

MPSC's statement-based questions carry the ask in the closing line, and that line is not fixed — it may want the correct statements or the incorrect one, and it may be phrased as 'which of the statements is correct', 'which is the incorrect statement' or 'which of the above are not true'. Seven questions in this paper are negative in that sense, and the typography cannot be relied on to flag them: five print the reversing word in bold in both columns, one only in the English column, and one in neither. Ladakh and the reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir have been examined by every commission since 2019, usually in one of three forms: the date and the instrument, the difference between the two Union Territories, or the office-holders. The last of these is the most volatile and the most frequently botched, because Lieutenant Governors change and advisers are reported in the same paragraphs as their principals. The safe method is to write down, for each Union Territory, the date it was constituted, whether it has a legislature, and who held the office of Lieutenant Governor at the time of the examination — and to read the closing line of every statement question before anything else.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Who was the first Lieutenant Governor of the Union Territory of Ladakh, appointed when the territory came into existence on 31 October 2019 ?

  • (a)Umang Narula
  • (b)Girish Chandra Murmu
  • (c)Radha Krishna Mathur
  • (d)Satya Pal Malik

  Answer(c) Radha Krishna Mathur. He was a retired officer of the 1977 batch who had served as Chief Information Commissioner until November 2018, and he was sworn in as the first Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh on 31 October 2019. Umang Narula was appointed Advisor to the Lieutenant Governor from the same date, a post that assists the office rather than holding it; Girish Chandra Murmu became the first Lieutenant Governor of the other new Union Territory, Jammu and Kashmir; and Satya Pal Malik was the Governor of the former State before its reorganisation.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which of the following statements about the two Union Territories created by the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 is correct ?

  • (a)Both have legislative assemblies
  • (b)Neither has a legislative assembly
  • (c)Jammu and Kashmir has a legislative assembly and Ladakh does not
  • (d)Ladakh has a legislative assembly and Jammu and Kashmir does not

  Answer(c) Jammu and Kashmir has a legislative assembly and Ladakh does not. The Act took effect on 31 October 2019 and constituted Jammu and Kashmir as a Union Territory with a legislature, on the model of Puducherry, and Ladakh as a Union Territory without one, administered through a Lieutenant Governor under Article 239 with the Autonomous Hill Development Councils of Leh and Kargil supplying the elected element of local administration.