Master Answer WritingSign in

UPSC 2017 GS-II · 10 marks · 150 words

“Simultaneous election to the Lok Sabha and the State Assemblies will limit the amount of time and money spent in electioneering but it will reduce the government’s accountability to the people.” Discuss.

What “Discuss” demands

present several distinct facets of the issue and connect them into an argument, giving the competing views real weight rather than one line each.

The characteristic failure: a list of points with no argument running through them.

What a top answer must contain

These are the checkable specifics from the marking standard for this question — the actual case, committee, datum or thinker, not an instruction to “give examples”.

  • For: repeated MCC imposition stalls policy, expenditure on ECI and party campaigning, security and staff deployment — and India did hold simultaneous polls from 1952 to 1967
  • Against: reduced accountability between cycles, national issues crowding out state ones, and the federal objection
  • Constitutional problem: needs amendment to Articles 83, 85, 172, 174 and 356, and an answer for a mid-term collapse — the Law Commission's 170th Report and the Kovind Committee (2024)
  • Comparative: South Africa and Sweden hold synchronised elections; Germany's constructive vote of no confidence as an enabling device
  • A good answer takes a position on whether the savings justify the constitutional cost

The band thresholds and the pre-scored sample answers behind this standard stay private — they are the calibration your copy is placed against.

Now write it, and find out what you actually scored

Attempt this question — typed or photographed — and it is marked against the standard above in under a minute: six parameter scores, a blunt verdict, and the points you missed. 50 free credits on signup, no card.

Write this answerSee a marked copy first

More from UPSC GS-II