TCS PLACEMENT PAPER

Books For Preparation
Directions for Questions 21-26: Read the passage and answer the questions that follow on the basis of the information provided in the passage.
Amnesty International's charge that 'tens of thousands' of political prisoners, including prisoners of conscience, are languishing in Indian jails and that prisoners are routinely tortured in this country has to be seen in a much wider context than the organisation's annual report cares to do.  In its overall appraisal of 151 countries, Amnesty has accused 112 of torturing prisoners, 63 of harboring prisoners of conscience, 61 of resorting to political killings and 53 of detaining people without a trial.  Of these apparently overlapping  categories, India seems to have been excluded from the list of the 61 which undertake political killings.  The report has however, pointed out that scores of people in India die of torture in police and military custody and that many also simply disappear.  Clearly, only a thin line separates the 61 charged with political murder from the rest.  Before coming to such conclusions, however, it may also be necessary to classify the various countries according to their political systems. Torture by the security forces and killings at the behest of the government  make no difference to the victims whether they are in a democratic country or a totalitarian one. It is also nobody's case that a democratic country is less culpable than a dictatorship in the event of human rights violations. But the point perhaps still needs to be made that torture or 'disappearances' represent a failure of the system in a democracy in contrast to being an integral part of state policy in a country ruled by an autocrat who is answerable to no one.
India may be guilty of keeping 'tens of thousands' behind bars and of the other human rights abuses mentioned by qualitatively different place from a totalitarian country.  It is in this respect that Amnesty has been lass than fair.  It has chosen to ignore the distinctions between the good, the bad and the ugly.  The openness of Indian society will be evident to anyone who spends half an hour in one of its chaotic market-places or visits the law courts or watches a political rally or reads a newspaper or strikes  up a conversation with any person on the roads.  There is no sense of fear in India, as in a dictatorship.  There is also scope for securing relief from the heavy-handed behaviour of the authorities, even if the human rights commission has not yet lived up to expectations.  Unless such points are recognised, Amnesty's assessment will seem to be a dry recital of statistics which may pillory India simply because of its larger population.  Mercifully, Amnesty nowadays at least notes that the terrorists also indulge in human rights violations and that India has to cope with several insurgencies fomentedby a country where the military does not always seem to be under the control of the elected government.  True, there is much that is the way the terrorist challenge is activating the self-correcting mechanism within a democracy and not merely on painting a grim, even biased picture.


21. In the report, India has been excluded from which of the following categories of violating human rights?
    A) Torturing prisoners
    B) Detaining without trial
    C) Political killings
    D) harbouring prisoners of conscience
    E) None of these 
    Ans: C


22. Which of the following is not true in the context of the passage ?
    A) India is guilty of some human rights abuses
    B) Amnesty International appraised all the democratic countries
    C) There is overlapping of cases in the categories of human right abuses
    D) India was one of the countries appraised by Amnesty International
    E) The report notes that the terrorists also violate human rights 
    Ans: B


23. According to the passage, through which media of forum Amnesty International has hurled the charges?
    A) Seminar on Human rights
    B) Its Regional Meet
    C) Its annual Report
    D) Its International Meet
    E) None of these 
    Ans: C


24. The author of the passage
    A) agrees with the report
    B) disagrees with the report
    C) disagrees that conditions of prisons in India is bad
    D) supports the totalitarian approach
    E) disagrees with report on terrorists 
    Ans: B


25. The Amnesty Internationals report is based on the information of how many countries ?
    A) 63    B) 112    C) 131    D) 115    E) None of these 
    Ans: E


26. The author suggests classification of various countries on the additional dimension.  Which of the following is that dimension ?
    A) Economic progress            B) Human rights            C) Industrial Progress
    D) Political systems                E) None of these
    Ans: B

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