Which portfolio did Dr. Rajendra Prasad hold during the interim government of 1946 ?

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — A, Food and agriculture. The Interim Government took office on 2 September 1946, when the Viceroy's Executive Council was converted into a council of ministers with Jawaharlal Nehru as its Vice-President, holding the powers of a prime minister. The portfolios of that Council are on the record and they leave no room for doubt: Vallabhbhai Patel held the Department of Home Affairs together with Information and Broadcasting; Baldev Singh held Defence; C. Rajagopalachari held Education and Arts; Asaf Ali held Railways and Transport; Jagjivan Ram held Labour; John Matthai held Industries and Supplies; and Rajendra Prasad headed the Department of Food and Agriculture. The assignment was a serious one rather than a courtesy — India was in the aftermath of the Bengal famine of 1943 and food procurement and rationing were the most politically dangerous work in the government. There is external corroboration worth knowing about, though it is not this paper's key, because BPSC published no key for this edition: the Union Public Service Commission asked a near-identical question in its 2006 prelims — 'Which portfolio was held by Dr. Rajendra Prasad in the Interim Government formed in the year 1946?' — and its published answer names Food and Agriculture. The letters differ, since BPSC reorders options, but the text of the answer is the same, and a second commission having published it makes this one of the better-supported items on a paper that has no key of its own.

Why the other options are wrong — (b) Defence went to Baldev Singh, the Sikh leader from Punjab, who kept the portfolio into the first Nehru ministry after independence and signed for India at the partition of the armed forces. It is a tempting choice because Rajendra Prasad was among the most senior Congressmen in the Council, and seniority is assumed to track the weightiest portfolio — but Defence was in a Commander-in-Chief's shadow in 1946 and was allotted on other considerations.  (c) Home Affairs, together with Information and Broadcasting, went to Vallabhbhai Patel, who held what was described as the second-most powerful position in the Council after Nehru's. Patel carried Home into independence and used it to integrate the princely states; it is the one portfolio of the Interim Government that is never in doubt, which is what makes it a good decoy.  (d) The escape fails because the first option is exactly right. It would be available only if Rajendra Prasad had held some portfolio outside the list — Education, say, or Railways — and he did not. Note that even the UPSC version of this question in 2006 offered 'None' as its fourth option, and it was not the answer there either.

Concept: The Interim Government was the bridge between the Raj and independence. It was formed on 2 September 1946 out of the newly elected Constituent Assembly, following the Cabinet Mission's proposals and the elections of 1946, and it served until 15 August 1947. Constitutionally it was still the Viceroy's Executive Council — the Viceroy remained its formal head — but in practice it became a cabinet of Indians, with Nehru as Vice-President exercising prime ministerial authority. The All-India Muslim League stayed out at first and joined only on 26 October 1946, taking five places, with Liaquat Ali Khan as Finance Member, from which position he obstructed the Congress ministers' proposals across departments. That experience of a divided executive did as much as any argument to persuade Congress leaders that a united India with the League inside the government would be unworkable. For Bihar the government matters for a second reason: Rajendra Prasad, born at Ziradei in Siwan district, went from this Council to the presidency of the Constituent Assembly and then, on 26 January 1950, to become the first President of India, an office he held for two full terms.

State PCS 2025 Q67 — History PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2025 Q67 — History PYQ with Answer