THE HINDU Editorial Vocabulary- October 6, 2016- Topic 1
When the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal
(CWDT) proposed the setting up of a Cauvery Management Board, it did so for
very good reasons. During monsoon deficit years, the pattern of flows in the
different sub-basins will not match the schedule of water deliveries worked out
on the basis of normal year readings. The CMB was conceived as a body that
would monitor the storage position in the Cauvery basin and the trend of
rainfall, and assess the likely inflows for distribution among the States. The
tribunal was emphatic in its final award: the CMB is integral to the resolution
of disputes, between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and also Tamil Nadu and
Puducherry and Tamil Nadu and Kerala, over the schedule of releases for
irrigation downstream. For the Central government
to now oppose the setting up of the CMB, taking cover under Article 262 of the
Constitution and the provisions of the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act,
1956 that forbid the Supreme Court from intervening in inter-State water
disputes is little more than a streak of twisted logic. Indeed, the Section of
the 1956 Act that gives the orders of tribunals set up by the government under
it the same force as an order of the Supreme Court is being invoked not to
strengthen the orders of the Cauvery tribunal but to subvert one of its crucial
recommendations. The Supreme Court’s direction to the Centre to constitute the
CMB was in keeping with the tribunal order, and not in contravention of it, as
the government was trying to make it appear.
The fact that the Centre did such a
hasty U-turn on the CMB while making its submission in the Supreme Court
suggests that political factors may have been at play. The Assembly election in
Karnataka, where the BJP has high stakes, is less than two years away. In
contrast, Tamil Nadu, where the BJP has no real base, has recently concluded
its election. If there is a good legal argument against the setting up of the
CMB, it is that a larger, three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court is already
seized of the matter. Tamil Nadu’s plea to constitute the CMB had been clubbed
along with the main appeal filed challenging the 2007 final award of the CWDT.
In the short term, the Supreme Court’s acceptance of the suggestion that a
“technical team” visit the Cauvery basin and report back on the ground
realities seems to be the only certain way of depoliticising the dispute. But
any long-term solution will necessarily have to be on the basis of the
well-thought-out recommendations of the CWDT, and the mechanism provided for
the sharing of waters in a year of distress.
Vocabulary
Deficit: the amount by which something, especially a sum of money, is too small.
Example: The fund will absorb the deficit in the Rover pension scheme, which
officially stands at £67.6m.
Synonyms: shortfall, deficiency, shortage, debt, arrears, negative
amount
Conceived: form or devise a plan or idea in the mind.
Example: The dam project was originally conceived in 1977
Synonyms: think up, think of, dream up, devise, formulate, design
Emphatic: showing or giving emphasis; expressing something forcibly and clearly.
Example: The children were emphatic that they would like to repeat the experience
Synonyms: vehement, firm, wholehearted, forceful, forcible, energetic
Forbid: refuse to allow something.
Example: Environmental laws forbid alteration of the coast
Synonyms: prohibit, ban, outlaw, make illegal, veto, proscribe, disallow
Streak: a long, thin line or mark of a different substance or color from its
surroundings.
Example: A streak of oil
Synonyms: band, line, strip, stripe, vein, slash, ray
Invoked: cite or appeal to (someone or something) as an authority for an action or
in support of an argument.
Example: The antiquated defense of insanity is rarely invoked today
Synonyms: cite, refer to, adduce, instance, resort to
Subvert: undermine the power and authority of (an established system or
institution).
Example: An attempt to subvert democratic government
Synonyms: destabilize, unsettle, overthrow, overturn, bring
down
Contravention: an action that violates a law, treaty, or other ruling.
Example: Young persons who commit offenses bear responsibility for their
contraventions
Synonyms: breach, violation, infringement, neglect, dereliction
Clubbed: beat a person or animal with a club or similar implement.
Example: The islanders clubbed whales to death
Synonyms: cudgel, bludgeon, bash, beat, hit, strike, batter
Distress: extreme anxiety, sorrow, or pain.
Example: To his distress he saw that she was trembling
Synonyms: anguish, suffering, pain, agony, torment, heartache