You are an honest and responsible civil servant. You often observe the following :
(a) There is a general perception that adhering to ethical conduct one may face difficulties to oneself and cause problems for the family, whereas unfair practices may help to reach the career goals.
(b) When the number of people adopting unfair means is large, a small minority having a penchant towards ethical means makes no difference.
(c) Sticking to ethical means is detrimental to the larger developmental goals.
(d) While one may not involve oneself in large unethical practices, but giving and accepting small gifts makes the system more efficient.
Examine the above statements with their merits and demerits.
Approach · directive: “examine”
What it asks · Weigh each of the four statements: what truth it holds, where it fails, and how an honest civil servant should answer it.
The question has 5 parts — answer each
- Examine statement (a), that ethical conduct brings hardship to oneself and one's family while unfair means bring career success: its merits and demerits
- Examine statement (b), that an ethical minority makes no difference when most people use unfair means: its merits and demerits
- Examine statement (c), that ethical means are detrimental to larger developmental goals: its merits and demerits
- Examine statement (d), that small gifts, unlike large corruption, make the system efficient: its merits and demerits
- State how an honest and responsible civil servant should respond to these perceptions
Open with · Each statement is a familiar excuse for compromise, and each rests on a real observation that honesty can be costly in an imperfect system.
Cover
- (a) Merit: honest officers may face transfers and family strain. Demerit: unfair gains risk exposure and lost trust; integrity brings lasting respect.
- (b) Merit: a lone honest person can feel powerless. Demerit: reforms begin with a few; example inspires others, and rules, RTI and vigilance support them.
- (c) Merit: strict procedure can slow projects. Demerit: unethical shortcuts bring poor quality, litigation and waste; transparent, faster procedures serve development better.
- (d) Merit: a small gift may seem to speed a file. Demerit: petty corruption is still corruption; it favours payers, burdens the poor and breaks conduct rules.
- Response: hold the line, follow rules and record reasons, document pressure, seek backing from superiors and institutions, and improve systems that create the delay.
- Ethical frame: duty-based and virtue ethics treat honest means as valuable in themselves; the outcome argument for shortcuts ignores long-term social cost.
- Personal test: would I be at ease if my decision were public, and can I defend it to the citizen it affects?
Close with · Honesty may cost something in the short run, but only ethical means build lasting trust and development.
Add value (verified)
- Kant's Categorical Imperative, preliminary formulation (Groundwork 4:402): I ought never to act except in such a way that I could also will that my maxim should become a universal law. Kant's Moral Philosophy — Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy ↗“This brings Kant to a preliminary formulation of the CI: “I ought never to act except in such a way that I could also will that my maxim should become a universal law” (G 4:402).”
- Madhya Pradesh was the first state to enact a Public Services Guarantee Act (PSGA), in 2010, to eliminate corruption and provide time-bound public services. Public sector delivery mechanisms: Success story of Madhya Pradesh — Grant Thornton India report with MP State Agency for Public Services ↗“MP is the first state in India that enacted the revolutionary PSGA in 2010 to eliminate corruption and facilitate proficient and time-bound public services to common citizens.”
- Nolan principles (UK, 1995), Integrity: holders of public office must avoid placing themselves under any obligation to people or organisations that might try inappropriately to influence them. The Seven Principles of Public Life — Committee on Standards in Public Life, GOV.UK (published 31 May 1995) ↗“Holders of public office must avoid placing themselves under any obligation to people or organisations that might try inappropriately to influence them in their work.”
Question: UPSC's CS (Main) 2017, GS Paper IV — paper ↗. Approach: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify) — UPSC publishes no model answers. ·
Model answer · 379 words (UPSC limit 250) · Minimalist IAS
Each statement is a familiar excuse for compromise, and each starts from a true observation: honesty has costs in an imperfect system. The task is to separate the grain of truth from the false conclusion.
Stakeholders
- The officer and family; colleagues who shape office culture; citizens who pay for corruption in money, delay and injustice; and the rule of law itself.
(a) "Honesty hurts, unfair means pay"
- Merit: honest officers do face inconvenient transfers, hostility and strain on the family.
- Demerit: unfair gains carry the risk of exposure, prosecution and lost self-respect; integrity earns a trust no transfer can remove, and the family shares the officer's name, good or bad.
(b) "A few honest people make no difference"
- Merit: one honest officer in a compromised office can feel isolated and powerless.
- Demerit: Kant's test asks whether my maxim could "become a universal law"; "everyone does it" fails that test. Every reform began with a few, and RTI, vigilance and e-governance multiply an honest officer's effect.
(c) "Ethics slows development"
- Merit: due process does slow projects, and impatience with delay is understandable.
- Demerit: shortcuts bring poor quality, litigation and cost overruns. The cure is simpler procedure: Madhya Pradesh enacted the Public Services Guarantee Act in 2010 to curb corruption through time-bound public services.
(d) "Small gifts oil the machine"
- Merit: a gift can look like harmless courtesy and seem to speed a file.
- Demerit: petty bribery is corruption in retail. It favours those who can pay, burdens the poor most and breeds the very delay it claims to cure; the Nolan principles bar officials from placing themselves "under any obligation" to those who may seek influence.
How I would respond
- Hold the line: follow the rules, record reasons, document pressure and seek support from superiors and vigilance when threatened.
- Remove the excuse: time-limited services, online file tracking and citizen charters take away the discretion that gifts buy.
- Personal test: would I be at ease if the decision were public, and can I defend it to the citizen it affects?
Honesty may cost something in the short run, but only ethical means build the trust on which both development and a career worth having rest.
Written by Minimalist IAS from facts checked at source (how we verify) — a little fuller than exam length, so every part of the question is covered; in the hall, keep the structure and trim the detail. UPSC publishes no model answers: compare your structure and coverage with this, then write your own.