(UPSC Ethics Simplified is a special series under UPSC Essentials by The Indian Express. It examines news and syllabus themes from an ethical perspective, integrates real-life or hypothetical case studies, and revisits core concepts of ethics. The series aligns current affairs with fundamental ethical principles to promote an ethical understanding of life, helping aspirants develop clarity, application skills, and value-based understanding for GS-IV. In this article, ethicist Nanditesh Nilay examines the ethical dimensions of the relationship between a minister and a civil servant, drawing from the recent incident in which Haryana’s Energy Minister asked the Kaithal SP to “get up from the meeting if you have no power” during a district grievance redressal session, after a disagreement over the suspension of a junior officer.) ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW VIDEO Recently, an argument between a Haryana minister and an IPS officer became widely discussed on social media. For many aspirants, such incidents may appear extraordinary. In reality, however, moments of friction between ministers and bureaucrats are not uncommon in the life of a civil servant. The minister, Anil Vij, directed SP …