Daily Vocab Capsule Title November 2019 Titlesaffron alliance affect the rhetoric of Hindutva and...
Transcript of Daily Vocab Capsule Title November 2019 Titlesaffron alliance affect the rhetoric of Hindutva and...
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Daily Vocab Capsule 30th November 2019
After The Dust Settles
Maharashtra brings a very full plate of problems for Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress to address.
Abrogation is a word we’ve seen a lot of since August 5 this year. Apart from its legal sense, it is also a word
that bears immense moral meaning. The current political circus in Maharashtra has showcased a cynical
abrogation of responsibility to constitutional values by those in power. Once the dust settles and it is business as
usual, can one seriously expect any of these players to rebuild trust in the institutions of governance?
Granted, there was an undesirably month-long hiatus in government formation after declaration of results on
October 24. But it was hardly such an emergency as to warrant the dubious revocation of President’s rule in the
middle of the night and the dawn swearing in. How the office of the President or the governor lent itself to this
travesty is another story altogether. Will there be any scrutiny, leave alone any attempt to secure accountability,
for these actions?
In the press conference announcing his resignation as chief minister, Devendra Fadnavis deflected questions on
this and reserved much of his address to attacking his former ally. He repeatedly said that Hindutva was being
jeopardised by the obeisance Shiv Sena is paying to Congress president Sonia Gandhi. One can expect that BJP
will be using many of these salvos to attack its former Hindutva ally in the days to come.
The two parties were in an electoral alliance since 1989, and Shiv Sena was seen as the senior partner in
Maharashtra at least, for most of the years the two were together. With the rise of BJP after 2014, Sena was forced
to play a supportive role and it had made no secret of its discontent.
Indeed, Shiv Sena distancing itself from BJP is perhaps the biggest development of the entire spectacle and both
its former as well as its new allies will watch its every move closely. How, for instance, will the break in the
saffron alliance affect the rhetoric of Hindutva and the building of Hindu rashtra? Are we seeing an assertion of
Marathi pride by all the three parties in the Maha Vikas Aghadi over BJP’s nationalist rhetoric?
There are other big questions. While he soon became the classic leader without any followers, the jury is still
out on the real role of NCP leader Ajit Pawar. Though the anti-corruption bureau claimed he was not implicated
in the alleged Rs 70,000 crore irrigation scam of 2013, its decision to announce the closure of nine cases in the
brief time he was deputy CM is questionable. There will be no end to the speculation on his real intentions. Why
did he risk his political career to ditch his uncle? Did he do it at his behest? More to the point, what will be his
political role now?
In the normal course, electoral politics is compelling. Who won, who lost, who crossed over and who was
checkmated. But minus the flipflops, the posturing and the rhetoric televised for posterity, what have we been
left with in Maharashtra?
A new government and an entirely new alliance that has been formed to run the state, touted as one of the
wealthiest in the country, the most industrialised, contributing the highest GDP to the country and seen as the seat
of corporate power in India.
Despite this, health and education indices are hardly anything to write home about. Sex ratio is 929 females
per 1,000 males (in the last Census, a fall from the 934 in 1991) and state expenditure on health is a woeful 0.5%
of its income. While literacy rate is better than the national average, its spread is uneven, with urban areas showing
a higher rate than tribal districts, also skewing the figures considerably.
The agrarian crisis has only worsened and the government’s own data says 12,021 farmers committed suicide
between 2015-18. Parts of Maharashtra are plagued by drought and there have been no measures to alleviate the
situation, whichever government has been in power. It has the pathetic record of the most polluted rivers in the
country, with industrial effluents dumped into them. In the monsoon preceding the assembly elections, western
Maharashtra experienced unprecedented rains and floods. The perception that the BJP-led government was
callous towards farmers, rural Maharashtra and tier-two cities became stronger.
Over five years of the BJP-Sena rule, mega-crore infrastructure projects have been rolled out. But there has been
continuous conflict over acquisition of land, destruction of the environment, and lack of agency of the people
affected by all these projects. Government simply didn’t seem to listen to its people, whether it was protests over
the felling of trees in the Aarey forest for the Metro yard or the farmers of Nashik protesting the acquisition of
land for the Samruddhi corridor or the bullet train project that will destroy tribal areas in Palghar and Dahanu.
The new government will definitely inherit all of this and its common minimum programme, yet to be spelt out
for the public, will have to take a stand on these projects. It will also have to address BJP’s larger national agenda,
from the push for the controversial National Register of Citizens and the Citizenship Amendment Bill to the
Industrial Relations Code Bill, 2019 which will allow further flexibility for dismantling of PSUs and
contractualisation. As the three allies occupy the high moral ground again, it remains to be seen whether they
hold together or abrogate their responsibility to the people of Maharashtra.
Courtesy: The Times of India (National)
1. Abrogation (noun): Meaning: The act of formally ending a law, agreement, or custom. (निराकरण; अनिनिषेध)
Synonyms: Invalidation, Nullification, Abolition, Annulment
Antonyms: Institution, Establishment, Foundation, Creation
Example: The abrogation of Article 370 was something that BJP had always endorsed.
2. Hiatus (noun): Meaning: A pause or break in continuity in a sequence or activity. (ठहराव, नवराम)
Synonyms: Pause, Interval, Interlude, Breather, Respite
Antonyms: Continuation, Progression, Run
Example: After a five-month hiatus, the talks resumed.
3. Travesty (Noun): Meaning: A false, absurd, or distorted representation of something. (मजाक; हास्यजिक
अिुकरण)
Synonyms: Charade, Caricature, Mockery, Sham, Farce
Antonyms: Reality, Realism, Actuality, Truth
Example: The play was, in their view, a travesty of the truth.
4. Obeisance (Noun): Meaning: deferential respect. (श्रद्धा, आदर)
Synonyms: Reverence, Veneration, Adoration, Deference
Antonyms: Disregard, Contempt, Dishonour, Discourtesy
Example: They paid obeisance to the Prince.
5. Ditch (verb): Meaning: To get rid of something/somebody because you no longer want or need it/them. (छोड़िा,
अलग करिा)
Synonyms: Abandon, Shed, Discard, Scrap, Do Away With,
Antonyms: Keep, Retain, Maintain, Hold
Example: He ditched the phone because it was not working well.
6. Behest (noun): Meaning: A person's orders or command. (आदेश)
Synonyms: Instruction, Bidding, Directive, Call
Antonyms: Appeal, Entreaty, Petition, Plea
Example: The committee was set up at the behest of the president.
7. Checkmate (verb): Meaning: To defeat somebody completely. (मात करिा)
Synonyms: Beat, Crush, Thrash, Trounce, Triumph Over
Antonyms: Lose, Fail, Go Down, Come A Cropper
Example: He hoped the plan would checkmate his opponents.
8. Jeopardize (Verb): Meaning: Put (someone or something) into a situation in which there is a danger of loss,
harm, or failure. (ख़तरे में डालिा)
Synonyms: Endanger, Imperil, Hazard, Menace
Antonyms: Guard, Shelter, Shield, Secure
Example: His foolish behaviour may jeopardize his whole future.
9. Distance (verb): Meaning: To become less involved or connected with something. (दूर करिा)
Synonyms: Detach, Dissociate, Isolate, Withdraw
Antonyms: Be Friendly, Get Along, Consort, Keep Company
Example: He distanced himself from everyone due to unknown reasons.
10. Compelling (adjective): Meaning: Very exciting and interesting and making you want to watch or listen.
(नदलचस्प)
Synonyms: Exciting, Captivating, Enthralling, Absorbing
Antonyms: Boring, Dreary, Lacklustre, Monotonous, Humdrum
Example: Skydiving seems like a compelling activity to do.