THE HINDU Editorial Vocabulary-April 4, 2017- Topic 2
Climbdown in Caracas
On
Venezuela's top court reversing a legislature order
The decision by Venezuela’s highest court on Saturday to
reverse its earlier move of nullifying the elected legislature, the Congress,
brings some respite from the relentless attack on democratic institutions under
President nicolásmaduro. And the fact that last week the judges initiated the
process to strip the legislature of all law-making powers, indicating contempt
for the will of the people in pursuit of Mr. Maduro’s interests, also puts in
sharp focus the severe erosion of the judiciary’s independence.
The attempted
takeover marked the nadir in the months-long confrontation between the
legislature and the courts, which are packed with loyalists of Mr. Maduro. A
notable voice of dissent that seems to have forced the Supreme Court to rescind
the decision came from the attorney general, who characterised the initial move
as a “rupture in the constitutional order”. The information minister may have
described the subsequent reversal on Saturday as the court’s way of correcting
a mistake, but the battle between the government and opposition is far from
settled. The opposition had won a two-thirds majority in the national assembly
in the 2015 elections. Such a large majority was always going to prove
contentious, as it empowers Congress to amend the constitution and to appoint
judges. Soon after its inauguration, the new legislature had challenged the
economic emergency that Mr. Maduro enforced in January 2016, giving him overall
control on expenditure.
Meanwhile, the severe shortages of rations of essential commodities
have led to a grave humanitarian crisis. The social and political unrest that
accompanied the plummeting value of the Bolivar, resulting from triple-digit
inflation, was met with more repression and the arbitrary detention of leading
opposition figures. The most notorious such incident was the torture and
killing of innocent youth at the military’s hands in the rural province of
Barlovento last October, which drew strong condemnation even from government
investigators. However, the opposition seems to have exhausted all manoeuvres
to exploit political and constitutional avenues to challenge the government.
Its effort to mobilise popular support for a recall referendum against the
President, with a petition endorsed by millions, was rejected by the electoral
commission in October. It is obvious that the crisis engulfing the country can
hardly be addressed by an autocrat who refuses to be held to account. But the
fact that the court was forced to reverse the decision to nullify the
legislature is a signal of hope that there are some limits to the Maduro
regime’s flagrant excesses. International pressure is another check on the
regime. Recently, Venezuela was declared ineligible to exercise its vote in the
UN General Assembly for failing to pay dues to the tune of millions of dollars.
This kind of embarrassment is something that Mr. Maduro can do without at this
juncture.
Vocabulary
Nullifying: make legally null
and void; invalidate.
Example: Judges were
unwilling to nullify government decisions
Synonyms: annul,
void, invalidate, repeal, reverse, rescind
Relentless: oppressively
constant; incessant.
Example: The relentless
heat of the desert
Synonyms: persistent, continuing, constant, continual, continuous, nonstop
Strip: a long, narrow
piece of cloth, paper, plastic, or some other material.
Example: A strip of linen
Synonyms: narrow
piece, bit, band, belt, ribbon, slip, shred
Pursuit: the action of
following or pursuing someone or something.
Example: The cat crouched
in the grass in pursuit of a bird
Synonyms: striving
toward, search for, aim, goal, objective, dream
Erosion: the process of
eroding or being eroded by wind, water, or other natural agents.
Example: The problem of
soil erosion
Rescind: revoke, cancel, or
repeal (a law, order, or agreement).
Example: The government
eventually rescinded the directive
Synonyms: revoke, repeal, cancel, reverse, overturn, overrule, annul, nullify
Contentious: causing or likely
to cause an argument; controversial.
Example: A contentious
issue
Synonyms: controversial, disputable, debatable, disputed, open
to debate
Plummet: fall or drop
straight down at high speed.
Example: A climber was
killed when he plummeted 300 feet down an icy gully
Synonyms: plunge, nosedive, dive, drop, fall, descend, hurtle
Notorious: famous or well
known, typically for some bad quality or deed.
Example: Los Angeles is
notorious for its smog
Synonyms: infamous, scandalous, well
known, famous, famed, legendary
Condemnation: the expression of
very strong disapproval; censure.
Example: There was strong
international condemnation of the attack
Synonyms: censure, criticism, strictures, denunciation, vilification, reproof
Manoeuvre: a movement or
series of moves requiring skill and care.
Example: Spectacular jumps
and other daring maneuvers
Synonyms: operation, exercise, activity, move, movement, action
Avenue: a way of
approaching a problem or making progress toward something.
Example: Three possible
avenues of research suggested themselves
Synonyms: line, path, method, approach
Embarrassment: a feeling of
self-consciousness, shame, or awkwardness.
Example: I turned red with
embarrassment
Synonyms: mortification, humiliation, shame, shamefacedness, chagrin