PYQ Vault · Paper 1 · Statutory & Constitutional Bodies

Examine the role of the National Commission for Minorities in preserving, promoting and protecting the rights of minorities in India.

How the answer moves

The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.

Flow snapshot — how the answer moves
Intro routes

Route 1 NCM as institutional answer to an admitted gap → 1978 Resolution’s own confession → statutory status, 1992

Route 2 safeguards exist on paper → felt inequality persists → NCM created to bridge paper and practice

Body flow

threefold role tied to the question’s verbs → preserve: monitor Arts 15, 16, 25–30, 350A/B + evaluate development → promote: study discrimination + recommend to governments → protect: investigate complaints, civil-court powers, Bharatpur 2011 / Assam 2012

Counter-view

statutory not constitutional → recommendations non-binding → Mahmood “toothless tiger” / “Sarkari puppet” → Hasan: no rights without constitutional backing + political will

Conclusion routes

Route 1 preserves and promotes more than it protects → Kymlicka’s group-differentiated rights → constitutional status + binding powers to secure, not record

Route 2 role is real but reach is limited → reform closes the very gap the 1978 Resolution first named

Model answer

Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.

Handwritten model answer — UPSC PSIR 2017, Statutory & Constitutional Bodies