THE HINDU Editorial Vocabulary- September 29, 2016- Topic 1
India’s decision to pull out
of the SAARC summit in Islamabad this November, with Afghanistan, Bhutan and
Bangladesh deciding to follow suit, effectively draws the curtain on what was
increasingly becoming a farce. Since the previous Nepal summit, Pakistan has
blocked all protocols to better link the region, while India has pursued a
“SAARC minus Pakistan” plan to push through with agreements it is keen on.
Meetings in the run-up to Islamabad have been overshadowed by ongoing
India-Pakistan tensions for months now. Basic courtesies were set aside by both
countries after the Pathankot attack. Islamabad dropped any plans to send a
representative to India to formally extend an invitation to the summit, as is
the custom. Home Minister Rajnath Singh was given a mixed welcome by his Pakistani
hosts during the Home Ministers’ meeting in Islamabad in August, prompting
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to cancel his visit for the subsequent SAARC
Finance Ministers’ meeting. Afghanistan and Bangladesh too had downgraded their
participation in these meetings because of their anger with Pakistan on its
continued support to terror groups in the respective countries. Uri proved to
be the final straw, especially in view of Pakistan’s refusal to even issue a
statement condemning the attack, galvanising India to reach out to other SAARC
member-countries in an effort to “diplomatically isolate” Pakistan. But Sri
Lanka and the Maldives, and Nepal, the acting SAARC Chair, have kept out of the
boycott.
The Modi government cannot
claim much more than a pyrrhic victory for the SAARC process getting derailed
in this manner. With one-fifth of the world’s population, South Asia is home to
two-fifths of the world’s poor. It has abysmally low intra-regional trade. It
was precisely to work around bilateral tensions in the subcontinent, especially
between its two biggest members, and to make space for discussion on common
issues such as trade, infrastructure, sustainable development and poverty
alleviation, that SAARC was set up. The founding principle was that together South
Asia had a better chance of fighting its shared ills, an idea that held the
group together for decades in the face of intermittent regional tensions. Of
course, this is not the first time that a SAARC summit has been postponed. But
given the prevailing environment of deep mistrust and tension, it is unlikely
that the summit will be rescheduled to take place in the near future. This is
something that will cause serious damage to the multilateral process and raise
even more questions about the future and relevance of SAARC.
Vocabulary
Suit: be convenient for or acceptable to.
Example: He lied whenever it suited him
Synonyms: be convenient for, be acceptable to, be suitable for, meet
the requirements
Curtain: a piece of material suspended at the top to form a covering or screen,
typically one of a pair at a window.
Example: She drew the curtains and lit the fire
Synonyms: drape, drapery, window treatment, window hanging, screen
Farce: a comic dramatic work using buffoonery and horseplay and typically
including crude characterization and ludicrously improbable situations.
Example: On stage he has played character roles in farces , pantomime, comedies and
serious drama.
Synonyms: slapstick comedy, slapstick, burlesque, vaudeville, buffoonery
Pursued: follow someone or something in order
to catch or attack them.
Example: The officer pursued the van
Synonyms: follow, run after, chase, hunt, stalk, track, trail, shadow
Overshadowed: appear much more prominent or important than.
Example: His competitive nature often overshadows the other qualities
Synonyms: shade, darken, conceal, obscure, screen, dominate, overlook
Subsequent: coming after something in time; following.
Example: The theory was developed subsequent to the earthquake of 1906
Synonyms: following, ensuing, succeeding, later, future, coming, to
come, next
Downgraded: reduce to a lower grade, rank, or level of importance.
Example: Some jobs had gradually been downgraded from skilled to semiskilled
Synonyms: demote, lower, reduce rank, relegate; disparage, denigrate
Straw: dried stalks of grain, used especially as fodder or as material for
thatching, packing, or weaving.
Example: A straw hat
Galvanising: shock or excite someone, typically into taking action.
Example: The urgency of his voice galvanized them into action
Synonyms: jolt, shock, startle, impel, stir, spur, prod, urge, motivate, stimulate, electrify
Pyrrhic: a metrical foot of two short or unaccented syllables.
Example: Unless that is done, any military success in Afghanistan will
be a pyrrhic victory
Derailed: cause a train or trolley car to leave its tracks accidentally.
Example: A train was derailed after it collided with a herd of cattle
Abysmally: extremely bad; appalling.
Example: The quality of her work is abysmal
Synonyms: dreadful, awful, terrible, frightful, atrocious, disgraceful, deplorable, Very bad
Intermittent: occurring at irregular intervals; not continuous or steady.
Example: Intermittent rain
Synonyms: sporadic, irregular, fitful, spasmodic, broken, fragmentary
Mistrust: the feeling that someone or something cannot be relied on.
Example: His distrust of his mother's new suitor
Synonyms: mistrust, suspicion, wariness, chariness, leeriness, lack
of trust