THE HINDU Editorial Vocabulary- October 18, 2016- Topic 2
Over a period of 48 hours,
India hosted leaders of the five-nation BRICS as well as the seven-nation
BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic
Cooperation), which together represent two-thirds of humanity and more than a
quarter of the world’s growth. While BIMSTEC has geographical moorings, BRICS
is a unique organisation of countries that came together in 2006 not because of
geography, history or wealth, but because of their promise as key “emerging
economies”. While the promise has faded, their ability to grab the world’s
attention and challenge the “old order” is still unmatched, as Russia, India,
China, Brazil and South Africa remain leaders in their respective regions. What
they say on financial systems, development initiatives, sharing of resources
like water, oil, precious minerals and land, as well as battling climate change
and poverty has a wide-ranging impact. It is, therefore, unfortunate that the
outcome of the BRICS summit and the outreach to BIMSTEC countries has been
popularly condensed into what they had to say on a single issue: terrorism,
with only a few paragraphs out of the 109-para Goa Declaration dominating the
discourse. The domestic context is partially responsible. Even before the Uri
attack, New Delhi had embarked on a diplomatic mission to “isolate Pakistan” by
raising the issue of terrorism emanating from its soil at international fora —
the campaign escalated after the deaths at the Uri Army camp. As a result,
India’s interventions at the G-20 summit in China, the ASEAN summits in Laos,
the UN General Assembly, the Non-Aligned Movement meet in Venezuela, and
elsewhere resounded with outrage with Pakistan’s continued cross-border
adventurism.
Given this success, New
Delhi would have done better to bring the spotlight in Goa back to its own
declared goals of building economies and bringing prosperity in the region. A
united message to the rich world on a more equitable distribution of global resources,
deployment of the New Development Bank and climate change was in order.
However, in his speech on the outcomes of the BRICS deliberations, Prime
Minister Narendra Modi chose to anchor his remarks on concerns about
cross-border terrorism that weren’t entirely reflected in the final Goa
Declaration. Officials may well explain it away as a lack of consensus in the
grouping, suggesting that China influenced the moderation of the eventual text.
However, the single-issue focus also reflects a failure on the part of the
Centre in forging a larger, more broad-based narrative to match the scale of
the gathering hosted in Goa.
Vocabulary
Moor: make fast (a boat) by attaching it by cable or rope to the shore or to an
anchor.
Example: Twenty or so fishing boats were moored to the pier
Synonyms: tie up, secure, make fast, fix firmly, anchor, berth, dock
Fade: gradually grow faint and disappear.
Example: The noise faded away
Synonyms: dim, grow dim, grow faint, fail, dwindle, die
away, wane, disappear
Precious: affectedly concerned with elegant or refined behavior, language, or
manners.
Example: His exaggerated, precious manner
Synonyms: affected, overrefined, pretentious, la-di-da
Outreach: the extent or length of reaching out.
Example: We should be worried about this, at least if we're to be measured by our
impact and outreach
Condensed: change or cause to change from a gas or vapor to a liquid.
Example: The moisture vapor in the air condenses into droplets of water
Synonyms: precipitate, liquefy, become liquid, deliquesce
Discourse: written or spoken communication or debate.
Example: The language of political discourse
Synonyms: discussion, conversation, talk, dialogue, conference, debate, consultation
Emanating: of something abstract but perceptible issue or spread out from a source.
Example: Warmth emanated from the fireplace
Synonyms: originate, stem, derive, proceed, spring, issue, emerge, flow, come
Resound: (of a sound, voice, etc.) Fill a place with sound; be loud enough to echo.
Example: Another scream resounded through the school
Synonyms: echo, re-echo, reverberate, ring out, boom, thunder, rumble
Adventurism: the willingness to take risks in business or politics (especially in the
context of foreign policy); actions, tactics, or attitudes regarded as daring
or reckless.
Example: Only in this manner can we hope to reduce the risks of adventurism and
miscalculation in a world that retains many thousands of nuclear weapons.
Consensus: general agreement.
Example: A consensus of opinion among judges
Synonyms: agreement, harmony, concurrence, accord, unity, unanimity
Forging: make or shape (a metal object) by heating it in a fire or furnace and
beating or hammering it.
Example: For a dark blade such as this, the metal is forged in a magical fire of
burning ice.
Synonyms: hammer out, beat into shape, fashion