How do the virtues of trustworthiness and fortitude get manifested in public service? Explain with examples.

Question

Ghissu Editorial · Accepted Answer

Trustworthiness shows in honest stewardship of funds and impartial use of authority, while fortitude shows in moral and physical courage against pressure. T.N. Seshan's even-handed enforcement of the Model Code and Ashok Khemka's 2012 cancellation of the Vadra-DLF mutation are leading examples.

**Introduction**

Trustworthiness is being reliably honest, so citizens can depend on an officer's word and use of public money. Fortitude, one of Plato's cardinal virtues, is the strength to keep doing right despite fear, pressure or hardship. The first earns public trust; the second defends it when tested.

**How Trustworthiness Is Manifested**

1. **Honest Stewardship**: E. Sreedharan delivered the Delhi Metro's first phase in 2005 ahead of schedule and within budget, proving public money safe in his hands.
2. **Impartial Authority**: As Chief Election Commissioner (1990-96), T.N. Seshan enforced the Model Code of Conduct against every party alike, restoring faith in the Election Commission.
3. **Candour with Discretion**: Answering RTI applications fully while guarding genuinely confidential matters shows that trust rests on openness and discretion together.
4. **Keeping One's Word**: Sreedharan rebuilt the cyclone-wrecked Pamban bridge in 46 days in 1964 against a six-month target.

**How Fortitude Is Manifested**

1. **Moral Courage**: Ashok Khemka cancelled the mutation of the Vadra-DLF land deal in 2012 despite pressure and bore repeated transfers.
2. **Physical Courage**: Rinku Singh Rahee was shot seven times in 2009 after exposing a scholarship scam in Muzaffarnagar, yet stayed in service.
3. **Whistleblowing**: Satyendra Dubey of NHAI exposed highway corruption and was murdered in 2003, prompting the 2004 PIDPI resolution and later the Whistle Blowers Protection Act, 2014.
4. **Endurance in Crisis**: Officials and health workers who ran the COVID-19 response through 2020-21 showed fortitude as sustained endurance.

SKETCH: venn | Two Virtues in Public Service
a: Trustworthiness
b: Fortitude
overlap: Integrity under pressure

**Conclusion**

The two virtues need each other: trustworthiness without fortitude collapses at the first threat, and fortitude without trustworthiness becomes stubbornness. Together they form the integrity under pressure that the Nolan principles demand of every civil servant.

How do the virtues of trustworthiness and fortitude get manifested in public service? Explain with examples.

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