THE HINDU Editorial Vocabulary- September 19, 2016- Topic 2
Over the past
week, India played host to Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani
and Nepal’s Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’, visits
that marked a repair of relationships with both countries. Mr. Prachanda’s
meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi was CORDIAL, and though no large
announcements were made, the message that’s gone out is that both countries
wish to put the BITTERNESS of the past year and the economic
blockade behind them. New Delhi is acutely conscious of Mr. Prachanda’s
challenges: a potentially SHAKY tenure in office given his coalition’s
narrow majority, the difficulty in building a two-thirds consensus for the
constitutional amendments he has committed to, as well as the massive task of
reconstruction after the April 2015 earthquake. As a result, it didn’t
force him to commit on a timeline for amendments demanded by Madhesi and other
groups that feel marginalised by the new Constitution. The joint statement
referred to Mr. Modi welcoming “the ongoing efforts of the Government of Nepal
to take all sections of the society on board for effective implementation of
the Constitution,” but it didn’t mention the word amendment. India instead
focussed on delivering on its own promises to Nepal, including hydropower and
highways infrastructure projects. This shows a maturing of New Delhi’s
position, since the phase of STERN statements against the Koirala
and Oli governments on the Madhesi issue.
With Mr. Ghani, the OUTREACH began a year ago, after it became clear that Afghanistan had lost
confidence in Pakistan’s ability to bring the Taliban to book or to the table
for talks. Moreover, the U.S., Afghanistan’s biggest security provider, made a
shift in its old policy of cutting India out of the security equation, and
actively encouraged New Delhi to help provide military assistance to Kabul.
Even so, during Mr. Ghani’s visit, India opted for a less OVERT
approach to Afghanistan’s ‘wish list’ of helicopters, tanks and ammunition
assistance, with the joint statement and agreements signed MERELY mentioning their “resolve to counter terrorism and strengthen security and
defence cooperation as ENVISAGED in the India-Afghanistan Strategic
Partnership Agreement.” Mention of Pakistan’s support to terrorist groups was
muted as well. However, Mr. Ghani did give a SCATHING account of Pakistan’s
actions at a speech at a Delhi think tank later. The Afghan and Nepali visits
had another common thread, of landlocked countries in need of road and railway
trade routes. It is hoped that, going forward, India will take a leadership
role in maximising their options, as it has done with Afghanistan through the
Chabahar port project in Iran.
:::::::::::::Meanings with
example and Synonyms:::::::::::::::::
Cordial: warm and friendly.
Example: The atmosphere was cordial and relaxed
Synonyms: friendly, warm, genial, affable, amiable, pleasant, fond
Bitterness: sharpness of taste; lack of sweetness.
Example: The lime juice imparts a slight bitterness
Synonyms: sharpness, acidity, acridity, tartness, sourness, harshness
Shaky: shaking or trembling.
Example: She managed a shaky laugh
Synonyms: trembling, shaking, tremulous, quivering, quivery, unsteady, wobbly
Stern: (of a person or their manner) serious and unrelenting, especially in the
assertion of authority and exercise of discipline.
Example: A smile transformed his stern face
Synonyms: serious, unsmiling, frowning, severe, forbidding, grim, unfriendly
Outreach: the extent or length of reaching out.
Example: But we should be worried about this, at least if we're to be measured by
our impact and outreach
Overt: done or shown openly; plainly or readily apparent, not secret or hidden.
Example: An overt act of aggression
Synonyms: undisguised, unconcealed, plain (to see), clear, apparent
Merely: just; only.
Example: She seemed to him not merely an intelligent woman, but a kind of soul mate
Synonyms: only, purely, solely, simply, just, but
Envisaged: contemplate or conceive of as a possibility or a desirable future event.
Example: The Rome Treaty envisaged free movement across frontiers
Synonyms: imagine, contemplate, visualize, envision, picture, conceive
of
Scathing: witheringly scornful; severely critical.
Example: She launched a scathing attack on the governor
Synonyms: devastating, extremely critical, blistering, searing, withering
