Revision summary
Ashok’s story names a stone mafia after an SP is killed in a banned Aravalli mining belt. Selling the report for a loan adjustment is a bribe; a vague broadcast and empty resignation also fail. The right path is preserved evidence, criminal and court channels, vetted publication outside the captured channel, and lawful medical help. Dilemmas centre on a child’s debt versus truth, not on whether illegal mining may continue. Police training must cover law, convoy tactics, forensics, integrity and care for labourers who are not the shooters.
Model answer
Introduction
The Supreme Court has banned mining in the Aravallis; a young SP is dead; Ashok’s report names a mafia with police, civil and political cover. The CMD offers to buy the story with a child’s medical loan. Illegal mining is not to be blessed. The child’s illness is not to be mocked. The path is lawful publication and lawful care, not a silenced murder.
Body
Stakeholders
- Ashok, his son who needs treatment, and his family.
- The murdered Superintendent of Police, the investigating police, and officers still in the district.
- Villagers and forests of the Aravalli range under a Supreme Court mining ban.
- The local MLA, the Chief Minister’s circle, and corrupt officials named in the report.
- The CMD, the channel owner, and the audience that trusts the news.
- Labourers in illegal pits, who need lawful work, not a mafia wage.
(a) Options
- Option 1: Hand the report to the CMD, take the loan adjustment and the hike, and drop the story.
- Option 2: Air a softened version that names “anti-social elements” and not the MLA.
- Option 3: Resign in anger, keep the files at home, and do nothing further.
- Option 4: Put an unverified full broadcast on air against the CMD’s ban, including raw allegations still untested.
- Option 5: Refuse the bargain, preserve copies, move the evidence to a competent criminal and court channel, and publish through a medium that is not owned by the accused nexus, with legal vetting and care for the child’s treatment by lawful means.
(b) Evaluation
- Option 1 merit: the son’s loan pressure eases; Ashok keeps a desk.
- Option 1 demerit: concealment of a murder-linked mafia; the Supreme Court ban is mocked; you are paid in a child’s illness. Rejected.
- Option 2 merit: something airs.
- Option 2 demerit: the public is misled; the MLA remains unnamed; it is still a sale of the core facts.
- Option 3 merit: personal exit.
- Option 3 demerit: the SP’s death stays unsolved in the public square; the files can be stolen from a house.
- Option 4 merit: speed.
- Option 4 demerit: defamation of anyone wrongly named, contempt risk, and a channel war that can bury the facts in noise.
- Option 5 merit: the ban, the murder and the nexus reach a forum that can act; the journalist is not the MLA’s employee on this story.
- Option 5 demerit: job loss and threat; those are reasons for protection, not for killing the story.
(c) Ethical dilemmas
- Truth-telling versus a child’s medical debt held by the same employer.
- Loyalty to the newsroom versus loyalty to the dead officer and to the forest.
- Personal safety versus publication.
- Confidential sources in the mafia and in government versus the duty to a court.
- A complete on-air naming versus the legal duty not to defame on a guess.
- The dilemma is not “mining versus journalism”. Illegal mining is already forbidden. The dilemma is whether a child’s hospital bill can buy a silence.
(d) Most appropriate course
- Do not sell the report for a hike, a promotion, or adjustment of the Rs 10 lakh loan. That is a bribe in the shape of mercy.
- Keep original notes, footage and a hash-dated copy outside the office.
- File the material with the police investigating the SP’s murder, and with a competent court or a commission if the local station is captured; the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 is the frame for the official nexus.
- Seek legal vetting and publish in a forum not owned by the MLA’s kin — another publisher, a sworn affidavit, a petition — rather than a reckless live show that the CMD can twist.
- For the son: lawful hospital charity, insurance, public health schemes, and a loan that is not the price of silence. Ask a court for protection if the channel weaponises the debt.
- Do not take money from the stone mafia to “balance” the story. That is the other face of the same vice.
- Accept that the desk may be lost. A journalist who buries a murdered SP has already lost the profession.
(e) Training for police in such districts
- Legal core: the Supreme Court’s Aravalli mining restriction, forest and environment statutes, and that illegal extraction is not a “local livelihood custom” when a court has banned it.
- Tactics: never stand in front of a moving truck as a lone hero; use road design, drones, GPS on suspected fleets, and coordinated nakas.
- Integrity: rotation, asset checks, and the cost of a nexus under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
- Forensics of a hit-and-run: preserve the scene, CCTV, weighbridge data, and quarry receipts in the first hours, so a three-month blank does not become the norm.
- Human rights: distinguish pit labourers from shooters; do not collectively punish a village.
- Mental health and family security for officers who have seen a colleague killed.
- Joint work with forest and revenue so a seized truck is not released by another desk the same night.
- Media protocol: facts to the control room, not a leak that gets a journalist killed, and not a gag that protects the MLA.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD STORY[Aravalli nexus and dead SP] --> REF[Refuse loan-for-silence] REF --> EV[Police court other publisher] REF --> MED[Lawful care for child] SELL[Hand report to CMD] --> SIL[Silence over murder] SOLO[Stand in front of truck] --> DEATH[Repeat of SP killing]
Conclusion
The child’s illness is a claim on lawful help. It is not a claim on the SP’s truth. Refuse the CMD’s bargain, move evidence to a competent forum, publish without the owner’s muzzle, and train police to survive trucks and to refuse the quarry’s envelope.
Quick related
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Case study. You have done MBA from a reputed institution three years back but could not get campus placement due to COVID-19 generated recession. However, after a lot of persuasion and series of competitive tests including written and interview, you managed to get a job in a leading shoe company. You have ageur parents who are dependent and staying with you. You also recently got married after getting this decent job. You were allotted the Inspection Section which is responsible for clearing the final product. In first one year, you learnt your job well and was appreciated for your performance by the management. The company is doing good business for last five years in domestic market and this year it is decided even to export to Europe and Gulf countries. However, one large consignment to Europe was rejected by their Inspecting Team due to certain poor quality and was sent back. The top management ordered that ibid consignment to be cleared for the domestic market. As a part of Inspecting Team, you observed the glaring poor quality and brought to the knowledge of the Team Commander. However, the top management advised all the members of the team to overlook these defects as the management cannot bear such a huge loss. Rest of the team members except you promptly signed and cleared the consignment for domestic market, overlooking glaring defects. You again brought to the knowledge of the Team Commander that such consignment, if cleared even for domestic market, will tarnish the image and reputation of the company and will be counter-productive in the long run. However, you were further advised by the top management that if you do not clear the consignment, the company will not hesitate to terminate your services citing certain innocuous reasons. (a) Under the given conditions, what are the options available to you as a member of the Inspecting Team? (b) Critically evaluate each of the options listed by you. (c) What option would you adopt and why? (d) What are the ethical dilemmas being faced by you? (e) What can be the consequences of overlooking the observations raised by the Inspecting Team?
Next question in the 2022 paper (Q10). View answer →
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If the channel owns the loan, is Ashok trapped?
The debt is a civil obligation. Using it to buy silence is coercion. Courts, other publishers and hospital charity are the humane lawful exits.
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Should police copy the dead SP’s lone stop of a truck?
No. Training should forbid that tactic. Stop the fleet with design, numbers and intelligence, not with a body in the headlights.
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2022 · Q12 · GS IV · 20 marks
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2021 · Q8 · GS IV · 20 marks
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2021 · Q9 · GS IV · 20 marks
Case study. An elevated corridor is being constructed to reduce traffic congestion in the capital of a particular state. You have been selected as project manager of this prestigious project on your professional competence and experience. The deadline is to complete the project in next two years by 20 June, 2021, since this project is to be inaugurated by the Chief Minister before the elections are announced in the second week of July 2021. While carrying out the surprise inspection by inspecting team, a minor crack was noticed in one of the piers of the elevated corridor possibly due to poor material used. You immediately informed the chief engineer and stopped further work. It was assessed by you that minimum three piers of the elevated corridor have to be demolished and reconstructed. But this process will delay the project minimum by four to six months. But the chief engineer overruled the observation of inspecting team on the ground that it was a minor crack which will not in any way impact the strength and durability of the bridge. He ordered you to overlook the observation of inspecting team and continue working with same speed and tempo. He informed you that the minister does not want any delay as he wants the chief Minister to inaugurate the elevated corridor before the elections are declared. Also informed you that the contractor is far relative of the minister and he wants him to finish the project. He also gave you hint that your further promotion as additional chief engineer is under consideration with the ministry. However, you strongly felt that the minor crack in the pier of the elevated corridor will adversely affect the health and life of the bridge and therefore it will be very dangerous not to repair the elevated corridor. - Under the given conditions, what are the options available to you as a project manager? - What are the ethical dilemmas being faced by the project manager? - What are the professional challenges likely to be faced by the project manager and his response to overcome such challenges? - What can be the consequences of overlooking the observation raised by the inspecting team?
More from this paper
Q1 · UPSC Mains 2022 · GS IV · 10 marks
(a) Wisdom lies in knowing what to reckon with and what to overlook. An officer being engrossed with the periphery, ignoring the core issues before him, is no rare in the bureaucracy. Do you agree that such preoccupation of an administrator leads to travesty of justice to the cause of effective service delivery and good governance? Critically evaluate. (b) Apart from intellectual competency and moral qualities, empathy and compassion are some of the other vital attributes that facilitate the civil servants to be more competent in tackling the crucial issues or taking critical decisions. Explain with suitable illustrations.
Civil Service Aptitude and Values
Wisdom in bureaucracy is knowing which issue is the core right and which is ceremonial noise. Living on the periphery delays the weakest citizen and empties good governance. Due process is not periphery; skipping a hearing in the name of speed is another injustice. Intellect and morals are necessary but not sufficient for hard decisions. Empathy gathers true facts; compassion completes the service inside the law.
Q2 · UPSC Mains 2022 · GS IV · 10 marks
(a) The Rules and Regulations provided to all the civil servants are same, yet there is difference in the performance. Positive minded officers are able to interpret the Rules and Regulations in favour of the case and achieve success, whereas negative minded officers are unable to achieve goals by interpreting the same Rules and Regulations against the case. Discuss with illustrations. (b) It is believed that adherence to ethics in human actions would ensure in smooth functioning of an organization/system. If so, what does ethics seek to promote in human life? How do ethical values assist in the resolution of conflicts faced by him in his day-to-day functioning?
Ethics and Human Interface
Identical rules yield different results because interpretation carries the officer’s motive and fear. A positive reading completes a lawful case; a negative reading manufactures objections. Positive is not illegal favour; it is the purpose of a beneficial rule. Ethics promotes right conduct, trust and a life that does not need two ledgers. Integrity, impartiality, empathy, courage and temperance settle the day’s conflicts in one public standard.
Q3 · UPSC Mains 2022 · GS IV · 10 marks
(a) Ethics is knowing the difference between what you have the right to do and what is right to do.'-Potter Stewart . (b) "If a country is to be corruption free and become a nation of beautiful minds, I strongly feel there are three key societal members who can make a difference. They are the father, the mother and the teacher." - Abdul Kalam. (c) "Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it." Dalai Lama.
Probity in Governance
Stewart separates permission from justification; legality is the first test, not the last. Public power to transfer, demolish or dismiss can be legal and still fail dignity. Kalam places anti-corruption in parents and teachers who refuse to sell a grade or a file. Statutes punish late; the dining table and the classroom teach early. The Dalai Lama measures success by the duties sacrificed; a posting or a GDP number bought with silence or a river is a loss.
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