Question

Arrange the following events in chronological order :
• [(i)] Declaration of National Emergency on the basis of internal disturbances.
• [(ii)] Railway strike by government employees under the leadership of George Fernandes.
• [(iii)] Sixth General Election held in India.
• [(iv)] Declaration of the doctrine of ‘basic structure’ of the Constitution in the ‘Keshavananda Bharti’ case by the Supreme Court. Choose the correct option :

• A. (iv), (ii), (i), (iii)
• B. (i), (iii), (iv), (ii)
• C. (iii), (ii), (i), (iv)
• D. (iv), (iii), (ii), (i)

Hint:

Timeline to remember: - Keshavananda Bharati Ruling: 1973 - Railway Strike (George Fernandes): May 1974 - National Emergency Declared: June 1975 - 6th General Elections: March 1977

Answer 1

The Correct Option is A

Concept: Chronological ordering requires identifying the exact year and month of occurrence for major political and legal developments during the 1970s in modern Indian political history.

Step 1: Determining the exact historical dates for each event.

• Event (iv) - Keshavananda Bharti Case Judgment: The Supreme Court of India pronounced its historic judgment establishing the 'Basic Structure Doctrine' of the Constitution on 24th April 1973.
• Event (ii) - Nationwide Railway Strike: Led by George Fernandes under the National Coordination Committee for Railwaymen's Struggle (NCCRS), the historic 20-day railway strike took place in May 1974.
• Event (i) - Declaration of National Emergency: Indira Gandhi's government declared a nationwide National Emergency under Article 352 on the ground of 'internal disturbance' on the midnight of 25th June 1975.
• Event (iii) - Sixth General Election: Held after the revocation of the Emergency in March 1977, leading to the historic victory of the Janata Party and India's first non-Congress government.

Step 2: Arranging the events in temporal sequence.
1973 (iv) $\rightarrow$ May 1974 (ii) $\rightarrow$ June 1975 (i) $\rightarrow$ March 1977 (iii). Therefore, the correct chronological sequence is (iv), (ii), (i), (iii), which corresponds to Option (A).