Revision summary
Vijay’s options are to leave at once, stay then go, stay through the peak, attempt a short hop, or freeze. The dilemma is filial duty versus the unique public role of a Deputy Commissioner in a still-killing disaster. Leaving at once risks command failure; using a relief helicopter for a funeral would be wrong. The best path is to stay through the life-saving window, delegate rites with the sister and a priest, and travel at the first true lull. Grief is not denied; it is sequenced after the right to life of those still in the open.
Model answer
Copper italics in this answer — like this — are the key facts. Each one is unpacked in the Facts & figures rail.
Introduction
Vijay is the Deputy Commissioner of a hill district that a cloudburst has broken. Roads and phones are down. More than two hundred people are dead and thousands are hurt. His mother in Kerala has died, and the family asks him to come for the last rites. He has no other close relative in India. This is not a trick. It is the oldest civil-service wound: the State’s hour and the mother’s hour falling on the same night.
Body
(a) Options available to Vijay
First, he can leave at once for Kerala, handing the district to the Additional District Magistrate and the Superintendent of Police, and hope the helicopter and camps run without him. Second, he can stay until the acute phase eases — roads partly open, the next rain pulse handled — and then go for rites, asking his sister to delay ceremonies if faith and law allow, or to perform them with a priest on video as many families did in the pandemic. Third, he can stay through the whole relief peak and accept that he may miss the funeral, requesting a cousin, a trusted neighbour, or the sister on a later flight to complete rituals, and performing his own shraddha when the district can spare him. Fourth, he can try a very short absence of a day if a special flight exists and if the Chief Secretary formally places a full charge, which in a cut-off hill district is often a fantasy. Fifth, he can collapse into indecision, which is also a choice, and a bad one.
(b) Ethical dilemmas
The dilemmas are filial piety versus public trusteeship; unique positional duty (only one DC is the crisis coordinator) versus replaceable son (rites can be done by kin and priest); personal grief versus the grief of five thousand injured; religious time (last rites soon) versus hydrological time (the next cloudburst). There is also integrity of emotion: pretending he does not hurt is false; abandoning the camps to prove he is a good son may be another falsehood. Confucius honoured the parent; the Constitution honours the right to life of the living who still need a boat. Both claims are real. That is why it is a dilemma, not a slogan.
(c) Critical evaluation of the options
Leaving at once honours the mother and may save Vijay from a lifetime of guilt. It risks command failure in a theatre where the DC’s name is the State. In a remote district, the ADM may be junior; helicopters need a single political-administrative face. The public will not parse his grief; they will see an empty chair.
Staying forever without any rite can look heroic and can break a person, and Hindu (or any) custom is not a toy. A middle path — stay while the rain is killing, delegate rites with a recorded blessing, go as soon as a named officer holds the night — respects both if it is honest, not a slow escape.
A one-day hop is ethically pretty and logistically cruel if it means a helicopter taken off a medical run. Using relief aviation for a funeral would be a scandal of means.
(d) Most appropriate option
The most appropriate course is to remain in the district through the life-saving window, formally vest operational charge in the next competent officer for defined hours, ask the sister and a priest to perform the rites with Vijay present on a satellite call if a link exists, and travel to Kerala at the first genuine lull, with the Chief Secretary informed so that the State owns the choice. This is Gandhi’s talisman (the face of the injured in the camp) plus honour to the parent delayed, not denied. It is role morality: the DC is not an ordinary son while the district is an open wound. When the wound closes, he must go home and weep. An officer who never weeps is not stronger. An officer who leaves a drowning block to prove a ritual clock is not more moral. He is absent.
Flow diagram
Conclusion
Vijay should hold the district while people are still being pulled from the slope, share the rites at a distance if he must, and go to Kerala as soon as a real lull and a named deputy exist. Duty to the living poor and honour to his mother can both be told in that order, not as a cancellation of either.
Quick related
Students also ask
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Case study. In line with the Directive Principles of State Policy enshrined in the Indian Constitution, the government has a constitutional obligation to ensure basic needs - "Roti, Kapda aur Makan (Food, Clothes and Shelter)" - for the under-privileged. Pursuing this mandate, the district administration proposed clearing a portion of forest land to develop housing for the homeless and economically weaker sections of the society. The proposed land, however, is an ecologically sensitive zone densely populated with age-old trees, medicinal plants and vital biodiversity. Besides, these forests help to regulate micro-climate and rainfalls; provide habitat for wildlife, support soil fertility and prevent land/soil erosion and sustain livelihoods of tribal and nomadic communities. Inspite of the ecological and social costs, the administration argues in favour of the said proposal by highlighting that this very initiative would provide housing to human rights as a critical welfare priority. Besides it, it fulfils the government's duty to uplift and empower the poor through inclusive housing development. Further, these forest areas have become unsafe due to wild-animal threats and recurring human-wild life conflicts. Lastly, clearing forest-zones may help to curb anti-social elements allegedly using these areas as hideouts, thereby enhancing law and order. (a) Can deforestation be ethically justified in the pursuit of social welfare objectives like, housing for the homeless? (b) What are the socio-economic, administrative and ethical challenges in balancing environmental conservation with human development? (c) What substantial alternatives or policy interventions can be proposed to ensure that both environmental integrity and human dignity are protected?
Next question on this syllabus topic (2025 · Q8). View answer →
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Is missing a parent’s funeral always unethical?
No. In a unique life-saving command it can be a tragic right. It remains a debt to be paid as soon as the command can be handed over.
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Should the State force him to stay?
The Chief Secretary should support the stay with a named deputy and later leave. Coercion without support is another cruelty.
Same topic · past papers
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These previous-year questions sit on the same topic. Open one to practise the earlier ask.
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2025 · Q12 · GS IV · 20 marks
Case study. Ashok is Divisional Commissioner of one of the border districts of the North East State. A few years back, Military has taken over the neighbouring country after overthrowing the elected civil government. Civil war situation is prevailing in the country especially in last two years. However, internal situation further deteriorated due to rebel groups taking over control of certain populated areas near own border. Due to intense fight between military and rebel groups, civilian casualties has increased manifold in recent past. In the meantime, in one night Ashok got information from the local police guarding the border check post that there are about 200-250 people mainly women and children trying to cross over to our side of the border. There are also about 10 soldiers with their weapons in military uniform part of this group who wants to cross over. Women and Children are also crying and begging for help. A few of them are injured and bleeding profusely need immediate medical care. Ashok tried to contact Home Secretary of the State but failed to do so due to poor connectivity mainly due to inclement weather. (a) What are the options available with Ashok to cope with the situation?(b) What are the ethical and legal dilemmas being faced by Ashok?(c) Which of the options, do you think would be more appropriate for Ashok to adopt and why?(d) In the present situation, what are the extra precautionary measures to be taken by the Border Guarding Police in dealing with soldiers in uniform? -
2020 · Q9 · GS IV · 20 marks
Case study. Rampura, a remote district inhabited by a tribal population, is marked by extreme backwardness and abject poverty. Agriculture is the mainstay of the local population, though it is primarily subsistence due to the very small land holdings. There is insignificant industrial or mining activity. Even the targeted welfare programs have inadequately benefited the tribal population. In this restrictive scenario, the youth has begun to migrate to other states to supplement the family income. Plight of minor girls is that their parents are persuaded by labour contractors to send them to work in the Bt Cotton farms of a nearby state. The soft fingers of the minor girls are well suited for plucking the cotton. The inadequate living and working conditions in these farms have caused serious health issues for the minor girls. NGOs in the districts of domicile and the cotton farms appear to be compromised and have not effectively espoused the twin issues of child labour and development of the area. You are appointed as the District Collector of Rampura. Identify the ethical issues involved. Which specific steps will you initiate to ameliorate the conditions of minor girls of your district and to improve the over-all economic scenario in the district?
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Q11 · UPSC Mains 2026 · GS IV · 20 marks · Solution
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Q10 · UPSC Mains 2026 · GS IV · 20 marks · Solution
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