UPSC Civil Services · 2025 · GS 2

Civil Society

Civil Society Organizations are often perceived as being anti-State actors rather than non-State actors. Do you agree? Justify.

Original exam: 10 marks

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GS 2 · Governance & social justice

CJP’s Ashutosh Ranka Detention: Civil Society, Transparency, and State Accountability

On September 27, 2026, Ashutosh Ranka and a team from the non-governmental organization Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) were detained by authorities in Guwahati, Assam. The incident occurred while the team was purportedly engaged in a fact-finding mission to assess the ground-level conditions of educational institutions in the state. The detention has reignited a critical discourse regarding the operational independence of civil society organizations, the boundaries of state authority in restricting movement, and the perceived antagonism between administrative narratives of development and independent investigative efforts by NGOs.