Read the passage and answer the questions:
The Making of the Constituent Assembly
Rajendra Prasad's role was as President of the Assembly, where he had to steer the discussion along constructive lines while making sure all members had a chance to speak. Besides this Congress trio, a very important member of the Assembly was the lawyer and economist B.R. Ambedkar. During the period of British rule, Ambedkar had been a political opponent of the Congress; but, on the advice of Mahatma Gandhi, he was asked at Independence to join the Union Cabinet. Serving with him were two other lawyers, K.M. Munshi and Alladi Krishnaswamy Aiyar, both of whom gave crucial inputs in the drafting of the Constitution. These six members were given vital assistance by two civil servants. One was B. N. Rau, Constitutional Advisor to the Government of India, who prepared a series of background papers based on a close study of the political systems obtaining in other countries. The other was the Chief Draughtsman, S. N. Mukherjee, who had the ability to put complex proposals in clear legal language. Ambedkar himself had the responsibility of guiding the Draft Constitution through the Assembly. This took three years in all, with the printed record of the discussions taking up eleven bulky volumes. But while the process was long it was also extremely interesting. The members of the Constituent Assembly were eloquent in expressing their sometimes very divergent points of view.
Which Ministry did B.R. Ambedkar join in the Union Cabinet after independence?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → Law Ministry
At Independence, on the advice of Mahatma Gandhi, B.R. Ambedkar was asked to join the Union Cabinet as law minister. The passage stops at ‘to join the Union Cabinet’ and leaves out the words ‘as law minister’.
Note: This passage is taken from the NCERT chapter ‘Framing the Constitution’ (section ‘The dominant voices’), nearly word for word. NTA has left out a few words of the book, among them ‘as law minister’ and the sentence on Ambedkar’s role as Chairman of the Drafting Committee, and has asked questions on these very points. NTA cut out the very lines that hold two answers of this set, so a student who has read this page of the book gets them for free.
NCERT (2026-27): “1.2 The dominant voices … Besides this Congress trio, a very important member of the Assembly was the lawyer and economist B.R. Ambedkar. During the period of British rule, Ambedkar had been a political opponent of the Congress; but, on the advice of Mahatma Gandhi, he was asked at Independence to join the Union Cabinet as law minister. In this capacity, he served as Chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Constitution. Serving with him were two other lawyers, K.M. Munshi from Gujarat and Alladi Krishnaswamy Aiyar from Madras, both of whom gave crucial inputs in the drafting of the Constitution.…” |