1. Examine the significance of political impartiality for a civil servant in a democracy.
Approach – As the directive here is examine, it is necessary to cover various angles of the topic/issue to assess its implication. In the introduction you can explain the meaning political impartiality. In the main body part it is expected to show the significance of political impartiality for a civil servant in a democracy. In the conclusion you can conclude by stating the implication of practising political impartiality in brief.
Introduction
Political Impartiality implies principle of working without reservation and with devotion to the success of every government and its policies. It basically means you are not partial to any particular party or government.
Body
Significance of Political Impartiality for a civil servant in a democracy:
Upholds constitutional values: Political impartiality helps a civil servant to uphold constitutional values and prevent unwanted interference of authoritarian government.
It helps in upholding rule of law and makes the civil servant accountable to law and law alone. Thereby it helps a civil servant to act in impartial way by keeping aside her views and inclinations.
Political impartiality helps the civil servant to be in accordance with the constitutional provisions including Article 14, 15. For instance, any political pressure to favour or not to favour a particular group of society would be handled impartially only if the civil servant is politically impartial all along.
Political Impartiality brings in objectivity and often when funds are to be allocated, a politically impartial civil servant would not favour a particular political party’s demand to grant fund to their respective constituency even when it does not need developmental fund.
Political Impartiality keeps up the morale of the civil servant and with the sense of righteousness, the works get done efficiently. A positive environment is created in the office and a conducive work culture is created.
Majoritarianism prevention: In a diverse country like India, minority voices can be suppressed if the civil servant becomes partial towards the political party which represents majorities’ interests.
Effective implementation of schemes: An impartial civil servant will not hesitate to implement the schemes or government programmes in their letter and spirit even if a particular political party opposes to its implementation. For instance, a civil servant needs to devise a strategy for auctioning coal blocks. That civil servant needs to check the modus operandi which has to be followed by her peers while allocating coal blocks.
However, if a political interference comes in to picture to modify this modus operandi then at that time a politically impartial civil servant would take impartial decision without professing partisanship.
It also helps a civil servant to give correct and objective advice to the political representative, which in turn it will assure the more effective and efficient decision making by political representatives.
Controls corruption: Political Impartiality keeps the civil servant free from nepotism, political-corporate nexus and corruption. The examples are is Sagayam IAS of Tamilnadu cadre or Ashok Khemka of Haryana.
Conclusion
Present-day civil servants need to perform multiple functions of giving suggestions to political representatives, addressing public grievances, institutionalization of the socio-economic changes. In this scenario there might come some situations where Political Impartial attitude of civil servant gets challenged due to the whims of political leadership. Hence, to secure and profess the democratic values of equality, justice, and liberty political impartiality is of critical importance in a democracy.
2. Integrity requires self-discipline and will power to resist the temptation. Illustrate.
Approach – It expects students to write about – define integrity in your own words – then write why integrity requires self-discipline and will power to resist the temptation – give suitable examples to support your argument.
Introduction
Integrity is the practice of being honest and showing a consistent and uncompromising adherence to strong moral and ethical principles and values. In ethics, integrity is regarded as the honesty and truthfulness or accuracy of one’s actions.
Body
Integrity require self-discipline:
Self-discipline and having control on mind helps from prevention of lust. Eg: soldiers can protect themselves from Honey trapping.
To be self-discipline it is important to practice properly and regularly code of conduct. E.g. – civil servant need to be disciplined towards their approach of working.
It has greater importance as it encourages person and co-workers which leads to boost performance and right directions towards goal.
It is important to hold positive attitude and right aptitude for efficient working as it will enable to control emotional situation, better understanding, ability to cope up with stress and conflict.
Integrity require will power to resist temptation:
Willpower to act calmly in all conditions prevent anger to taken over and helps in taking good decision in all condition.
In a conflict of interest situation, one should not use his position to benefit one’s family, relatives, friends etc.
One should resist temptation of promotion or transfer. Eg: Durga Shakti Nagpal
To not fall prey to pleasure. E.g.: students getting diverted from correct goal.
Giving respect to one’s own decision. E.g.: continuous struggle for perfection and not giving up.
Conclusion
Thus, integrity requires both self-discipline and will power. It can be inculcated at a tender age by parents, teachers etc. so that person is shaped into an adult with integrity.
3. Why is non-partisanship a foundational value for the civil service? Substantiate.
Approach – It is straightforward question where it expects students to write about importance of non-partisanship as a fundamental value for civil services. Give relevant examples to support your argument.
Introduction
Although Non-partisanship synonymous with impartiality in general parlance, it has special connotation that it indicates apolitical behaviour by civil servant and non-prejuridist behaviour. Civil servant shouldn’t indulge in politics although they should understand politics.
Body
Main role of bureaucracy is to transform into action, in this regard they have to serve all sort of citizens like rich, poor, educated, illiterate, different cast, religion.
In parliamentary democracy, there are multiparty system which is elected every 5yr. Therefore, CS should remain impartial otherwise, pre-judice will increase in country, policies will not have made on basis of merit and state may not remain neutral. There can’t be sense of justice, inclusive development and good governance.
If country faces chaos, tension, conflict largely due to pre-judist administration.
There are many recent examples:
Panchkula incident: administration was soft; prison authorities are soft on high-profile image.
Jat protest in Haryana and soft response of by administration.
Vigilantism in country and lack of administrative response.
Keeps away from controversy: The major advantage of this value is that it removes all scope of controversy that a public servant may encounter during his time of service. Neutral nature of work will keep issues away from public fanfare.
Ex: If a public servant gives permission for holding rally to a particular political party and denies the same for another, it will create controversy. By maintaining neutrality this can be avoided.
Keeps balance between sections of society: In multi religious and multicultural society such as India there are many issues that arise between two groups, which may result in tension. The public official must exercise his duty by maintaining distance from both the parties in order to maintain peace.
Ex: Religious procession is one of the many events where different groups show their strength. During this time the public official must be ready to take rational decisions without favouring one party over the other.
Upholds dignity of position: Government is ruling body that needs to maintain distance from getting involved too closely with public. If that barrier is broken, the value and dignity of the position will be compromised.
Ex: Members of UPSC should keep distance from candidates who they know personally. If any links are established, then reputation of the body will be under threat.
Conclusion
Non-partisanship is very fundamental for imbibing sense of justice and feeling of dignity among people. Its responsibility of administration to ensure a sense of justice prevail in society. That’s possible when administration remain impartial.
4. What sort of emotional aptitude is needed for a successful career in the civil services? Examine.
Approach – As the directive here is examine, it is necessary to cover various angles related to the issue or topic in detail. In the introduction you need to tell what is emotional aptitude and its importance for a civil servant in brief. In the main body part it is necessary to tell what kind of emotional aptitude needed for a successful career in the civil services. In the conclusion you can tell its necessity and how it will yield more benefits if implemented in other fields.
Introduction
Emotional aptitude refers to inherent intellectual ability of a person to deal with sensitive issues or to handle a delicate situation. Emotional aptitude helps to perceive emotions in oneself and others accurately thereby enabling use of emotions to facilitate thinking and take decisions accordingly. Hence, emotional aptitude becomes the essential quality for a civil servant to lead a successful career.
Body
Following are the types of emotional aptitude needed for a successful career in the civil services:
Emotional aptitude for analytics: This sort of emotional aptitude helps to bring together various data sets and derive a conclusion out of it. For instance, IPS officer need to understand the way in which a crime is perpetrated. Once she understands it then it becomes easy to take decision accordingly.
Emotional aptitude for Human Relations: A civil servant daily meets hundreds of people. She must have an innate potential to deal with the issues they face. If she carries the emotional burden of her Home’s problems and the anger bursts out on other people then it is of no use.
Having an emotional aptitude to deal with these many people will help her to distinguish between genuine demands and not genuine demands. For instance, if two persons comes to an officer in demand of getting a home under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna. One of them is in dire need of home whereas the other one is looking to get benefit out of it and then rent the house to other person to earn more money. Here this emotional aptitude comes in to picture.
Emotional Aptitude for Articulations: Meeting the news media representatives, public representatives is a part of daily curriculum of civil servant. A civil servant needs to understand what to speak, what not to speak, how to speak, when to speak and when not to speak.
For instance, articulation to a knowledgeable professional is done in different way as compared to articulation to a rural person. For instance, if a civil servant speaks about technicalities of GDP calculation to an agriculture professional then she will understand what a civil servant is saying, but if that same civil servant goes and talk about technicalities of GDP calculation to a villager/rural person then it might possible that the villager/rural person will not understand what a civil servant is saying.
Emotional Aptitude for Technology Assimilation: A civil servant needs to understand the technology assimilation and its effect on people’s lives. For instance, Himmat is a safety app launched by Delhi Police for the safety of women. It creates a sense of security at back of the mind of women that, yes there is somebody from government side who will come to help me if something goes wrong. When a civil servant understands this emotion or feeling then she/he will definitely strive to have this kind of app or facility in his/her jurisdictional area. But if somebody doesn’t understands it then that civil servant will not assimilate technology well.
Emotional aptitude also helps to imbibe the foundational values of civil servants. For instance, integrity, impartially, objectivity, dedication, compassion, empathy.
Foundational values are the choices to be made by the civil servant to strongly hold the superstructure called civil service.
One of the fine example of having an emotional aptitude can be cited in the career of IAS Amit Gupta who started the campaign of ‘Daliya Jalao’, to liberate the manual scavengers and moving towards total sanitation.
Through this campaign he burnt the baskets and brooms allotted to manual scavengers, he facilitated a rehabilitation package for them which led to social inclusion of manual scavengers and technological assimilation by converting the latrines in to flush latrines. As a result 2750 manual scavengers were liberated from the menial job of manual scavenging.
Conclusion
The horizon of responsibilities of civil servant is wide and far reaching. At ground level the job of civil servant becomes more difficult as one problem has different dimensions. In this light the emotional aptitude becomes necessary to handle the situation carefully and decide accordingly. Examples of plenty of civil servants can be cited who have this kind of ability or developed it over the period of time and led a successful career. Hence, it can be said that, different kinds of emotional aptitude are necessary for a civil servant to lead a successful career.
5. While attitude is associated with character or virtues; aptitude is associated with competence. Elucidate.
Approach – You need to elucidate upon the attitude and aptitude aspects where attitude’s association with character or virtues is shown as well as aptitude’s association with competence is highlighted.
Introduction
Attitudes are generally positive or negative views of a person towards a person (including oneself) place, thing, or event (the attitude object) while Aptitude is the suitability, natural ability or capacity to learn especially potential rather than existing capacity to perform some function, whether physical, mental or a combination of the two, given the necessary education or training.
Body
Aptitude is the ‘ability to learn’ and attitude is the ‘desire to learn’, i.e., aptitude basically tells about the potential ability to learn or acquire a skill while, attitude tells about a person’s desire to perform or learn.
Suppose you see a group of people protesting against a road accident on a nearby highway. The mental construct that you create for/against the protesting crowd is an attitude you just generated.
While attitude is associated with character or virtues; it is a reflection of one’s personality, aptitude is associated with competence; it determines if the person can develop desired skills to do a task.
For e.g. an aptitude for mathematics and reasoning is essential for success in engineering field. Similarly, civil service requires a certain specific aptitude for success.
Attitude is a psychological phenomenon which can be positive, negative or neutral. On the other hand, aptitude can be mental (general mental ability) or physical. Both attitude and aptitude can be nurtured.
Attitude is significant in many ways. First of them is because of the functions it serves which will be dealt in detail later. Attitude is also significant because it helps us understand the basic framework of society around us e.g. Low sex ratio in Haryana can be attributed the negative attitude of society towards girls.
Further attitude is significant for it creates avenues of comparison between oneself and their peer group e.g. Social acceptance to a new boy in a group is given only after their attitudes towards similar situations is on same lines.
On the other hand, Aptitude is component of competency to do certain task at a certain level. Having an aptitude for a particular job increases the probability for success as it leads to fast learning of skills required for the job with less effort. In short, it is aptness to succeed in a special field of activity.
While attitude underpins the character, virtues and moral values; aptitude determines if the person would develop desired skills to do a task.
Right attitude means knowing what you are capable of accomplishing. A study by Leadership IQ revealed that 46% of hired people are likely to fail in the first 12-18 months on the job. The high failure rate is not because they lack skills or knowledge, but because they do not possess the right attitude.
Attitude alone is not sufficient, one must be certain that he has learned the required skills. Aptitude is important as it provides the requisite flexibility, passion and leadership skills that can make or break a candidate’s fulfilment of their job description.
In a constantly changing work environment, aptitude is crucial if one wants to succeed. If you have the potential to learn new skills and develop them over a time, success will not be far.
But attitude often takes precedence because the right attitude helps influence other aspects like emotional intelligence, leadership, team spirit, fraternity, empathy, compassion, which are very vital for a civil servant.
For example, the ability to fit in with the culture and values of the company or organisation is crucial which demands a positive attitude to adapt. Many opportunities are lost, withheld, and forfeited because of attitude than from any other cause.
Conclusion
Both the right skills (aptitude) and the disposition (attitude) are equally important to excel in a particular field. In a diverse country like India, it is the right blend of the two inherited and acquired qualities respectively that go hand in hand in determining the gains and losses in a person’s life and help shaping the progress of one’s life.
