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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.