Revision summary
Hidden files stop the citizen from reaching, joining, and checking the State. Bentham’s publicity and the Second ARC treat RTI as a master key to governance. Section 4 suo motu disclosure was meant to make secrecy the exception. Ration lists, MGNREGA maps, and readable hearings convert access into involvement. Privacy and security limit disclosure; they do not excuse hiding tenders or relief.
Model answer
Introduction
A republic cannot participate in what it cannot see. Concealment turns the citizen into a petitioner at a closed door; sharing and transparency turn the same person into a partner who can ask, check, and vote with knowledge.
Body
The statement
- When files, budgets, and reasons are hidden, the public cannot reach the decision, cannot join the hearing, and cannot hold the officer to account.
- Bentham’s publicity as the soul of justice, and Ambedkar’s warning that constitutional forms die without constitutional morality, both treat secrecy as a moral failure, not a clerical habit.
- The Second ARC called Right to Information the master key to good governance because sunlight is a cheaper check than a later raid.
Importance of sharing and transparency
- Information sharing is the State’s duty to put out, in time and in a usable form, what the public needs to use a scheme, a court, or a vote.
- Transparency is the further duty that the process itself — noting, tender, criterion, speaking order — can be inspected.
- RTI Act, 2005, especially Section 4 suo motu disclosure, was meant to make concealment the exception, not the office culture.
- Importance for access: a published ration list, a geolocated work under MGNREGA, and a district dashboard let the poor reach the entitlement without a tout.
- Importance for involvement: gram sabha papers, draft master plans, and environmental hearings work only if the data is not dumped as unreadable PDFs the night before.
- The First ARC and later the Second ARC linked transparency to reducing corruption; 2G and coal-block controversies showed what opacity costs the treasury and trust.
- Uttar Pradesh’s online mutation, e-tender, and CM Helpline trails, when they work, are local proofs that a visible file invites involvement.
- Nolan’s openness and the Supreme Court’s language on the right to know as flowing from Article 19(1)(a) give the constitutional backbone.
Limits that still keep the ethic
- Privacy, national security, and a fair trial justify some concealment; they do not justify hiding a tender criterion or a relief list.
- Proactive disclosure must be in the language of the user, or sharing is a ritual that still impedes the poor.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD H[Concealment] --> B[Blocked access] B --> L[Low involvement] T[Transparency] --> A[Access] A --> P[Public participation]
Conclusion
Concealment blocks access and voice. Sharing and transparency are therefore not courtesy; they are the ethics of a republic. RTI, suo motu publication, and speaking orders turn the closed door into a public file.
Quick related
Students also ask
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Describe various components of attitude and discuss factors that influence attitude formation.
Next question in the 2023 paper (Q6). View answer →
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Is every secret unethical?
No. Troop movements, a child’s identity, and a pending investigation may be withheld. Hiding a public criterion or a beneficiary list is the unethical concealment the statement names.
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Does an RTI reply equal transparency?
A delayed, incomplete, or unreadable reply still impedes access. Transparency is timely, usable, and mostly proactive.
Same topic · past papers
UPPSC has asked this before
These previous-year questions sit on the same topic. Open one to practise the earlier ask.
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2024 · Q5 · UPGS4 · 8 marks
How far is the act of 'Right to Information' effective in deciding the transparency in governance? -
2020 · Q2 · UPGS4 · 8 marks
Discuss the role of the 'Right to Information' for transparency in governance. -
2024 · Q14 · UPGS4 · 12 marks
In the process of policy making by public administrators, whether priority should be given to moral transparency or the effectiveness of consequences/results? Elucidate.
More from this paper
Q1 · UPSC Mains 2023 · UPGS4 · 8 marks · Solution
What do you understand by Moral insight? How does it help in the moral situation of civil servants?
Civil Service aptitude and values
Moral insight is practical wisdom that reads a case, names values, and chooses a publicly justifiable act. Aristotle’s phronesis, Kant’s end-in-itself test, and Gandhi’s inner voice describe that sight. In service it ranks Constitution, statute, and the weakest claimant over oral pressure. The Second ARC wanted this ranking taught as a code of ethics, not left to accident. Flood lists, written dissent, and speaking orders are insight on the file.
Q2 · UPSC Mains 2023 · UPGS4 · 8 marks · Solution
Examine the relevance of the following in the context of civil service: a) Spirit of service b) Courage of firm conviction.
Civil Service aptitude and values
Spirit of service treats the chair as a means to the weakest citizen’s welfare, as in Gandhi’s talisman. The Second ARC and Sevottam make that spirit a delivery and courtesy duty, not a slogan. Courage of firm conviction holds a lawful reasoned view against pressure. Nolan integrity and dissent notings are that courage in rules. Flood camps, clean rolls, and written illegal-order requests show both on the ground.
Q3 · UPSC Mains 2023 · UPGS4 · 8 marks · Solution
“A child learns values by what he observes around him.” Discuss the role of family and society in the formation of values in light of this statement.
Civil Service aptitude and values
Children copy rewarded and repeated conduct more than lectures, as Bandura’s social learning says. The family is the first school of trust, fairness, gender, and truth about money. A closed home can plant caste pride and violence as normal. Society — peers, media, market, and the visible State — confirms or corrupts that map. Speed-money culture and queue-breaking teach cynicism; clean counters and shared meals teach dignity.