Given below are two statements, one is labelled as Assertion (A) and the other as Reason (R).
Assertion (A) : Directive Principles are important for economic, social and political functions in a Moder

Question

Given below are two statements, one is labelled as Assertion (A) and the other as Reason (R).
Assertion (A) : Directive Principles are important for economic, social and political functions in a Modern Democratic State.
Reason (R) : The core objectives of Directive Principles is to establish economic and social democracy.
Select the correct answer from the code given below :
Code :

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — D, both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A). Read the printed options before you answer: this booklet puts 'both true and R IS the explanation' at option (d) and 'both true but R is NOT the explanation' at option (a) — the reverse of the layout most candidates have memorised. On the substance: the Assertion is true. The Directive Principles occupy Part IV, Articles 36 to 51, of the Constitution, and although Article 37 makes them non-enforceable by any court, the same Article declares them 'fundamental in the governance of the country' and imposes a duty on the State to apply them in making laws — which is precisely a claim about the economic, social and political functioning of a modern democratic state. The Reason is also true, and it is the standard description of Part IV: the Directive Principles aim to establish social and economic democracy through a welfare state. And the Reason is exactly why the Assertion holds. Fundamental Rights in Part III secure political democracy by restraining the State; Part IV was written to do the opposite work — to direct the State towards the economic and social conditions in which citizens can actually lead a good life. Because that is their core object, the Directives necessarily bear on the economic, social and political business of governing. R is not a fact sitting beside A; it is the ground of A.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) This is the trap, and in the 2025 booklet it is doubly dangerous, because a candidate drilled on the usual UPSC code may tick (a) believing it means 'R IS the explanation'. Here it means the opposite. On the merits it also fails: both statements are true, but the object of Part IV is not an unrelated fact placed next to the assertion. Establishing economic and social democracy is the whole purpose for which the Directive Principles exist, so it is the reason they matter to the functioning of a modern democratic state.  (b) The Reason is not false. It is the settled account of what Part IV is for: the Directive Principles seek to establish social and economic democracy through a welfare state. Article 38 puts it in the constitutional text itself, directing the State to secure a social order in which justice — social, economic and political — informs all the institutions of national life.  (c) The Assertion is not false either. Non-justiciability is not unimportance: Article 37 calls the Directives fundamental in the governance of the country, and they have driven a great deal of hard law — panchayati raj under Article 40 through the 73rd Amendment, free legal aid under Article 39A, and the right to education, which moved from Article 45 in Part IV to a Fundamental Right in Article 21A by the 86th Amendment. A part of the Constitution with that record cannot be called unimportant to the economic, social and political functioning of the State.

Concept: The Directive Principles of State Policy are contained in Part IV, Articles 36 to 51, of the Constitution of India, and were modelled on the Directive Principles of Social Policy in the Constitution of Ireland. They are not enforceable by any court — Article 37 says so in terms — but the same Article declares them fundamental in the governance of the country and makes it the duty of the State to apply them in making laws. Their stated purpose is to establish social and economic democracy through a welfare state, so they are the complement of the Fundamental Rights: Part III secures political democracy by limiting what the State may do to the citizen, Part IV sets out the social and economic ends the State is meant to pursue.

State PCS 2025 Q100 — Polity & Governance PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2025 Q100 — Polity & Governance PYQ with Answer