Mission Mains 2021: GS 4 Ethics Discussion

A Practical approach to Ethics Integrity & Aptitude by DK Balaji IAS

DK Balaji

Highest is perhaps of Vishakha Yadav, AIR 6. She scored 162 marks in GS IV 

Kitne kitne marks laate hain laane waale aur ek hum hain jo sirf baatein banaane me lage hue hain! :( Anyway, now no more hereafter. A solemn resolve. Need of the hour is to study with single minded devotion. I, too, can, and I will. 

Yes, of course. But that will depend upon the particular question. For example if a question goes like this: ''Youare a District Election Officer-cum-District Magistrate of a rural district and as such charged with the job of supervising and coordinating the election in all constituencies of the district in free and fair manner, what steps would you take to discharge your functions in a proper manner?", you can surely answer it as "Being DEO-cum-DM, Iwill first of all ensure that..." 

The recent pandemic caused by the Corona virus has wreaked havoc by adversely affecting almost every section of Indian society, the defence personnel being no exception to it.

As an army officer posted in a region where the Corona virus is continuing to take a heavy toll on human lives, I will have two alternatives before me:

a) To resign from service and thereby ensure my personal safety.

b) To continue in the service along with fighting the pandemic. 

I will choose the latter option on account of the following reasons:

1) I am commissioned in a service where I had taken a pledge at the very outset that I will put my nation first and self interest behind. So, I will keep in my mind my pledge and I will not break it at any cost by resigning from the service just in order to ensure my own safety. 

2) No doubt, the pandemic is unprecedented and is no less than war, being in army I have been taught to fight with indomitable will and relentless courage and strive to put any hurdle down. I will keep this teaching in my mind and act accordingly. 

3) My resignation from the service will offer no solution to the problem. Rather, I will strive to make myself and my subordinates well equipped to face such a deadly pandemic by taking all the necessary precautions. I will also take care that sufficient number of adhoc military hospitals function in this crisis to come to rescue of those personnel who somehow contract Covid-19.

4) Myself continuing in the service will inspire others, most importantly my subordinates, and will act as a morale booster for them; quitting will set a bad precedent. 

5) What if I quit and following my footsteps many of my colleagues and subordinates do the same! Whom then the security of the country be entrusted to?

So, even if the cases of Corona virus get spiked in my region, I will continue serving my motherland of course after taking due precautions and safety measures to keep myself and others away from this fatal virus. 

From the days of yore, land ownership has been a severely contested issue. There have been some major controversies around it but there have always been advocates of it either. 

Traditionally in India, land has seen two brothers fighting for it who were earlier living amicably. Particularly in joint families, it has always remained a bone of contention. Out of the three factors which begets disputes namely Jar, Joru and Zameen, land has always occupied a place of primacy. And these all can be ascribed to great prestige and value which is attached to the land. 

Since land is an asset, it must be owned by someone but as can be seen in India the people who are already well off keep acquiring land in a bid to further enhance their property as investment in land is always considered to be of giving very high return. Not the ownership per se but the undue ownership of land (because of ever increasing value of land) is what is immoral. 

The need of the hour is to bring about land reforms in real sense which could identify the correct set of people worthy of being owners of the land like farmers, aboriginal and other tribal, etc. As Gandhi Ji rightly remarked, land should belong to those who actually cultivates it. 

I would suggest not to go after this thing. This year Vishakha is topper, next year someone else may be. How many different sources would you pursue! Better take the concepts and keywords mentioned in syllabus from any book (You may go through 2-3 sources and zero in on one which you feel is better than the rest) and rest practice extensive answer writing. While writing, try to hit the question to its very core, cover all the major aspects/issues involved and present a balanced viewpoint. That's it. Who knows someone else may ask next year "What was the source material used by Nagendra for GS 4 paper"? :) :)

Though making donations for charitable purposes is a noble deed and heartening act, the party in question is a mobster and that too convicted. Accepting the contributions from such a person, doesn't matter howsoever big the contribution is, will be tantamount to ignoring his background, past deeds and conviction- an act which is unwarranted. Moreover, the contribution is not unconditional, rather naming the new pavilion after him is a a condition precedent to his contribution. Also, if the gift is accepted after agreeing to the stipulation, besides breaching ethical and moral norms, it will also send wrong message to the society, and people will begin seeing the project from an altogether different angle. Thus, keeping the above assertions in mind I don't think it is morally right on part of the hospital authorities to accept the gift. (137 words) 

Such questions are mostly asked to see whether you go by the ethical standards or by your emotions! Let me explain you point wise. 

Why not accept the money? It's for a good deed from a man who went in wrong route. 

The man in question is no minor, not a person of unsound mind, but must be a person who had committed the crimes in his full senses. Accepting his money which in all probability has the likelihood of being earned from illegitimate sources will be like serving the self interest of the hospital while putting no question on the origin and legitimacy of money. This is morally not fair.

Does public (including ourselves) enquire the background of donator and how he got the money?

Not the donation per se but naming of the pavilion is also involved here. Suppose a pavilion is named after A.P.J Abdul Kalam and an other one named after Nirbhaya rapist or any notorious and infamous gangster, won't it be making difference in the minds of the general public? It will actually, and in a considerable way. Naming the pavilion after the mobster in this particular case will go against the goodwill of the hospital and will put a blot on its credibility. 

No one's past should dictate their future good deeds, it's only the attitude which we should disagree.

Past deeds are the acts which people must be accountable for. This is the reason persons convicted of criminal offences have been barred from contesting elections for a particular period, this is the reason Md. Azharuddin was served life ban from playing all forms of Cricket and so on. Even committing criminal offences on many occasions work against a person aspiring to get a government job too. So, it will not be fair to disregard the past deeds. Also, the Gangsters in most of the cases are habitual offenders and even after having successfully completed their sentences, they tend to repeat their heinous crimes when get out of Jail. 

Anyway it will be mostly public money he looted and at least it's being put to use for good deeds now.

Asserting it is not fair in my opinion because it will be a kind of endorsement of his past activities. It was the public money he looted which is totally wrong, so why to accept it in the first place! Moreover, these benevolent acts (like making contributions towards noble causes) are deliberately done by them to project themselves as humanitarians and working for larger public good, and therefore such intentions should never be let succeed. 

Media is often touted as the fourth pillar of Indian democracy. Although innumerable media houses continue to operate in India, over the years there can be seen a general deterioration in the ways they function and in the manner they perform their responsibilities.

1) Contrary to doing responsible journalism and bringing to fore the real and core problems that the country is facing, many electronic media houses are running a host of programmes which are just supposed to appeal the viewers and keep them glued to their channels; improving their TRPs and raising their profitability have become their prime concern. 

2) Off late many paid media channels have emerged. Some of them are controlled by the big business houses and corporate world. Serving their interest has replaced independent journalism as their main motive. 

3) Almost all the media houses remain politically inclined towards one or other political parties, groups and beliefs. This lack of neutrality cost the country heavily and their biases and prejudices gets clearly visible in their uncalled-for appreciation/criticism of the government moves.

4) Some loopholes in the Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867 regarding the definition of 'Editor' have led to the foreigners owning many media houses in India (completely or partially). Such media persons seem to serve their vested interests and fail to take moral high grounds, be responsible and patriotic, and cover issues which really affect India's interests. 

5) Print media in general and regional & local newspapers in particular have become heavily dependent on the advertisement, majority of which comes through government route. They don't dare do genuine and constructive criticisms of the government moves for that will negatively impact their earning and profitability. 

6) Lately many digital news channels have mushroomed which just publish false, fake and fabricated news without vouching for their authenticity. Some of them tend to incite public violence too by their reporting on sensitive issues like love jihad, communal clashes, dalit atrocities, etc

All in all, media can be widely seen nowadays loosing it's moral compass. Despite enjoying 'Freedom of Press' emanating from the Constitution, they have failed to leverage it to effectively perform their duties. It's high time attempts should be made to suitably regulate media and eliminate the malpracrices and irregularities therein to make it responsible, unbiased, independent, and moral. 

Yes, you are right. The very same was pointed out by my father as well who reviewed it yesterday. Verbally he told that answer is good except that it's appearing one-sided. The same was later mentioned in his written review too (Please check the last line in the attached file). 

Media.pdf

Case study

Ganeshchand, a typical IAS aspirant, although in good faith and with his noble intention of helping a fellow aspirant in need, is trying to reach out to maximum aspirants by disseminating his willingness of donating his books to every possible thread on ForumIAS. Even the threads earmarked for aspirants going to write this year's mains are not spared. Do you think ganeshchand is morally right in his action? Substantiate. (200 words)

Although the intention of Ganeshchand is worth admiring, his actions put a question mark on his morality. Spamming a large number of public threads of a IAS forum just for the sake of achieving one's personal objective, howsoever noble it might be, shows one's irresponsible behaviour and careless & callous attitude. Moreover, it might be annoying and psychologically disturbing to a large number of aspirants who must be preparing hard for coming mains and who might be using the threads specifically meant for them for extracting vital information and inputs- Ganeshchand's action might pose distraction to them. 

Instead, Ganesh should have made a separate thread for making his fellow aspirants aware of his benevolent intention. Yet an another alternative was to put the matter in the cognizance of Neyawn who might write it somewhere for bringing it to everyone's knowledge given he commands a wide appeal and is followed by a large number of IAS aspirants. 

Resorting to inappropriate means to meet one's end even if the end is meant to help someone is morally not a right course of action, and therefore, is condemnable.

The expression “The tragedy of the commons” refers to a situation where the resources meant for all in the society are mercilessly and selfishly exploited by the individual users. In such a situation, individuals act independently and irrationally, contrary to the belief on which the society functions.

This particular problem militates against sustainable development as it comes at the expense of others- jeopardizing their interests and thus putting them under disadvantage. Also, as the society runs on the values of cohesiveness and collectiveness, the tragedy of commons mars the shared resources system and leads to distortion in the society. As against it, the fair and equitable consumption of resources will promote utilitarianism and help subserve the common good of all.

Being Municipal Commissioner of my city, I will bring about both infrastructural reforms and penal provisions to contain the prevalent problem of littering- the former as proactive approach and the latter as deterrence. Waste disposal process will be made easier by installing sufficient number of twin bins along the roadside. In the housing colonies andmohallas, large litter bins will be pressed into service for smooth and seamless garbage disposal. It shall also be ensured that sufficient number of garbage collecting vehicles get deployed in the city which can pick the garbage from the bins on a daily basis. Roadside installation of CCTV cameras will be recommended to district administration so that defaulters could be easily and timely identified and brought to book. Additionally, I will also invest in making wide public awareness by means of advertisements through newspapers, pamphlets, roadside hoarding and flex boards which will help natives understand the role of cleanliness in promoting health, ecological preservation and ultimately in making a beautiful and livable society.