UPSC Mains 2019 GS Paper 4 Q5b: model answer
“Emotional Intelligence is the ability to make your emotions work for you instead of against you”. Do you agree with this view? Discuss.
What the question wants
Give and justify your view on whether EI means making emotions work for you rather than against you.
How to structure it
Agree with nuance.
- Meaning of the statement
- How emotions work for us
- How they work against us
- Limits of the view
How to think it through
Agree: EI channels emotions—anxiety into preparation, anger into reform (Ambedkar's anger at injustice into Constitution), fear into caution. Against: unregulated anger, panic. Nuance: EI also about others' emotions (empathy, social skills), not just self-serving; risk: manipulation (dark side of EI—Machiavellian use). Ethical use needed.
Model answer
Anxiety before an exam can freeze a student, or it can push her to revise one more chapter. The emotion is the same; what changes is how it is used.
Why I largely agree
- Emotions carry information: fear warns of risk, anger points to injustice.
- EI turns that information into action:
- Anger into reform: B.R. Ambedkar turned his anger at untouchability into the Mahad Satyagraha (1927) and later into constitutional rights.
- Anxiety into preparation: before a cyclone, an officer's worry drives drills and evacuation plans.
- Unmanaged emotions work against us: panic in a crisis, rage in a meeting, envy towards a colleague.
Where the view is incomplete
- EI is not only about one's own emotions; it also includes empathy and social skills, the ability to read and respect others' feelings.
- The dark side: a person can use EI to manipulate others' emotions for selfish ends, as some con artists and demagogues do.
- So EI must be joined with ethics: emotions should work for us and for others, not just for us.
My view
- I agree, with one addition: emotions should serve one's values, not merely one's interests.
Draw: An arrow from 'raw emotion' through a filter labelled 'EI + values' to 'constructive action', with a side arrow to 'manipulation' blocked by 'ethics'.
Keywords, cases and data to drop in
emotions as information, channelling, Ambedkar, Mahad Satyagraha 1927, anxiety into preparation, empathy, social skills, dark side of EI, manipulation, EI with ethics.
Where most answers lose marks
- Agreeing fully without noting that EI can be misused to manipulate others.
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Fresh examples from current affairs
Supreme Court: no prior approval under Section 17A needed to probe a bribe demand
In a judgment of 16 October 2026, a Supreme Court Bench of Justices S.V.N. Bhatti and N.V. Anjaria held that investigating a bribe demand by a public servant does not need prior approval under Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act. Asking for a bribe, the court said, is not part of discharging official duties.
UPSC angle: Prelims: Sections 7, 7A, 17A and 19 of the PC Act. · Mains GS-II/GS-IV: honest officers versus accountability.
19 Oct 2026Learn the concept
Question text as printed in the official UPSC Civil Services (Main) question paper. The model answer is original Battle IAS work; use it to learn structure, not to memorise.
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