Directions (Q.1-10): Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below. Certain words/phrases have been printed in bold to help you locate them.
I start with the news from Kerala. The said proposal for an administrative reforms commission has come from a left-wing government. This is significant, as the intellectuals linked to the communists have generally played down the will to power of the bureaucracy. They concentrate their energies on demonising the market. While it is absolutely essential following the triumphalism that has accompanied the collapse of the former Soviet Union to query the efficacy of the market mechanism, social analysis that ignores the role of the bureaucracy implies credulousness when it is not actually complicit. Perhaps the Left intellectuals avoid the critical approach as they fear alienating the bureaucracy on whom their party must rely when it eventually comes to power. From the point of view of social critique, however, this is deficient, as the bureaucracy in India has shown itself to be quite capable of slowing down, when not actually subverting, the programmes of democratically elected governments. This it is able to do with impunity given its near-exclusive control of the machinery of government. Attempted oversight has proved to be too distant to be effective. While India’s top bureaucracy is protected by statute, its lower echelon achieves independence by closing ranks whenever the action of its members is challenged; the clogged courts are hardly a source of redressal for the citizen having to engage with the latter on a daily basis.
The proposal of the Kerala government is to be welcomed on two grounds. First, there is reason to believe that despite the enthusiasm of academics for the Kerala Model, the public of the State do not feel well served by its machinery of government. We may infer this from the packed attendance at the lok adalat-type meetings that were held by Oommen Chandy while he was the Chief Minister. Mr. Chandy’s office had tried to spin this to its perceived advantage as the face of a caring government. It could not have escaped its attention though that the durbar may also be read as the public having been failed in the first instance, thus amounting to waste of the Chief Minister’s time and the public’s money. Actually, it may be interpreted as another instance of the political class’s reluctance to fix the system as that would eliminate its role as a purveyor of patronage to a beleaguered citizenry. This is in line with the disincentive of this class to finally eradicate poverty as then it can no longer appear benevolent by distributing private goods and announcing welfare schemes. So, quite unusually for an Indian political party, Kerala’s Left Democratic Front has signalled the need for administrative reforms. And, going by the news reports, it has chosen the right man to head the proposed commission. Mr. Achuthanandan may not have sparkled as Chief Minister but it is clear where his heart lies. He had had the nerve to publicly remind the State’s civil service that they were servants of the people. India’s politicians rarely read the riot act to the bureaucracy as they rely on it to further their personal interests.
Q.1 The idea for an administrative reforms commission has come from which stakeholders?
a.an autocratic establishment
b.a right-wing government
c.a left-wing government.
d.Indian National Congress
e.None of these
Q.2 Where The lok adalat-type meetings were held?
a.At Jantar Mantar
b.At vidhan Shabha
c.At parliament
d.At Oommen Chandy’s Place while he was the Chief Minister.
e.None of these
Q.3 Kerala’s Left Democratic Front has signalled the need for what kind of reform?
a.religious reforms
b.Business sector reforms
c.Political reforms
d.Social reform
e.administrative reforms.
Directions (4-10): In these questions, out of the five alternatives, choose the one which best expresses the meaning of the word given in bold in the given Passage.
Q.4 demonising
a.praise
b.admonish
c.communicative
d.vilify
e.respect
Q.5 collapse
a.nomadic
b.alight
c.stubborn
d.fumble
e.crumble
Q.6 credulousness
a.gullible.
b.infallible
c.infanticide
d.credibility
e.unscrupulous
Q.7 impunity
a.exaggeration
b.extrapolate
c.exemption
d.example
e.exile
Q.8 disincentive
a.unanimous
b.deterrent
c.ambivalent
d.amorous
e.panache
Q.9 redress
a.capable
b.admonish
c.rectify
d.sanctify
e.approval
Q.10 deficient
a.scant
b.scan
c.copious
d.excessive
e.astronomical
