You are heading the rescue operations in an area affected by severe natural calamity. Thousands of people are rendered homeless and deprived of food, drinking water and other basic amenities. Rescue work has been disrupted by heavy rainfall and damage to supply routes. The local people are seething with anger against the delayed limited rescue operations. When your team reaches the affected area, the people there heckle and even assault some of the team members. One of your team members is even severely injured. Faced with this crisis, some team members plead with you to call off the operations fearing threats to their life.
In such trying circumstances, what will be your response ? Examine the qualities of a public servant which will be required to manage the situation.
Approach · directive: “what will be your response / examine”
What it asks · Decide how to respond when an angry crowd attacks a rescue team while victims still need help, balancing duty to victims, the team's safety and calm handling; then identify the public-servant qualities the situation needs.
The question has 2 parts — answer each
- State your response to the crisis: the assault on the team and the plea to call off operations
- Examine the qualities of a public servant required to manage the situation
Open with · The crisis pits the duty to save lives against the safety of the team, and the crowd's anger is the product of suffering and delay, not personal hostility.
Cover
- Stakeholders: affected people in urgent need, the injured member and the team with their families, local leaders, police and district administration, superiors and media.
- Dilemma: continuing may endanger the team, while stopping abandons desperate people; the anger is understandable, yet violence against rescuers cannot be tolerated.
- Immediate steps: evacuate and treat the injured member, secure the team with police help, and calm the crowd by listening and explaining constraints.
- Option A, call off operations: protects the team now but abandons victims, deepens anger and breaks duty; at most a brief, planned pause.
- Recommended course: continue with safeguards: involve local leaders and volunteers, get police cover, start visible relief at once, and seek reinforcements and alternate routes.
- Communication: brief superiors, give honest public updates on delays and plans, set up help desks, and leave any legal action on the assault for later.
- Qualities needed: empathy, composure under pressure, courage, patience, integrity, communication and negotiation skills, decisiveness, team leadership and commitment to duty.
Close with · Duty to the victims comes first; staying on with safeguards, honesty and calm leadership serves both people and team, while retreat fails both.
Add value (verified)
- Section 51 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 punishes obstructing a government officer in the discharge of functions under the Act with up to one year's imprisonment, or two years if lives are lost or endangered. The Disaster Management Act, 2005 — copy hosted by Meghalaya Police (Government of Meghalaya) ↗“shall on conviction be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year or with fine, or with both, and if such obstruction or refusal to comply with directions results in loss of lives or imminent danger thereof, shall on conviction be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years.”
- Section 44 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 constitutes the National Disaster Response Force for specialist response to a threatening disaster situation or disaster. The Disaster Management Act, 2005 — copy hosted by Meghalaya Police (Government of Meghalaya) ↗“There shall be constituted a National Disaster Response Force for the purpose of specialist response to a threatening disaster situation or disaster.”
- The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction was adopted on 18 March 2015; it requires all-of-society engagement and partnership. What is the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction? — UNDRR ↗“The Sendai Framework was adopted on 18 March 2015. Its goal is to prevent new and reduce existing disaster risk . This requires an all-of-society engagement and partnership.”
- Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book II: with regard to fear and confidence, courage is the mean; excess of confidence is rashness and excess of fear is cowardice. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book II (W. D. Ross translation) — The Internet Classics Archive, MIT ↗“With regard to feelings of fear and confidence courage is the mean; of the people who exceed, he who exceeds in fearlessness has no name (many of the states have no name), while the man who exceeds in confidence is rash, and he who exceeds in fear and falls short in confidence is a coward.”
Question: UPSC's CS (Main) 2019, GS Paper IV — paper ↗. Approach: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify) — UPSC publishes no model answers. ·
Model answer · 339 words (UPSC limit 250) · Minimalist IAS
The crisis sets the duty to save thousands of lives against the duty of care to my own team. The crowd's anger springs from hunger and delay, not hostility, so both duties must be met at once.
Stakeholders
- Homeless survivors; the injured member and the team, with their families; local leaders and volunteers; police and the district administration; superiors and the media.
Ethical issues and dilemmas
- Duty versus safety: duty to the victims against the duty of care to the team.
- Empathy versus order: understandable anger against zero tolerance for assault on rescuers.
- Leadership: my authority to continue against my team's genuine fear.
Options
| Option | Merits | Demerits |
|---|---|---|
| Call off operations | Team safe now | Abandons victims; breaches duty |
| Continue as before | Shows resolve | More injuries and clashes |
| Pause, secure, engage, resume | Saves people and team | Needs swift coordination |
My response
- Care first: evacuate and treat the injured member; regroup the team at a safe point.
- Engage the crowd: meet them with local leaders and elders; listen, admit the delay, explain the damaged routes and give a concrete timetable.
- Visible relief: distribute water, dry rations and medical aid from stock in hand through local volunteers.
- Reinforce: seek police cover and the National Disaster Response Force, set up under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, plus air-drops and alternate routes; brief superiors truthfully.
- Law later: Section 51 of the Act punishes obstruction of officials on duty; record the assault for action later, without letting arrests derail relief.
- Team's fear: anyone unable to continue may withdraw without stigma; I lead from the front.
Qualities required
- Empathy to read anger as suffering; courage, which Aristotle saw as the mean between rashness and cowardice; composure; communication and negotiation; integrity in admitting delays; decisiveness; team leadership; and commitment to duty.
Systemic fix
- Pre-positioned supplies, trained community volunteers and one truthful information channel, in line with the Sendai Framework (2015) call for all-of-society engagement.
Duty to the victims comes first. Staying on with safeguards, honesty and calm leadership serves both people and team, while retreat would fail both.
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.