THE HINDU Editorial Vocabulary-August 10, 2017- Topic 1

Gujarat Rajya Sabha elections: an unseemly contest

Having converted a routine biennial Rajya Sabha election in Gujarat into a prestige issue, the Bharatiya Janata Party has created the perception that it lost a high-stakes battle. It won the two seats it was expected to and lost only the one it was meant to, given the respective strengths of the BJP and the Congress in the State Assembly. The BJP had enough legislators to get its president, Amit Shah, and Union Minister Smriti Irani elected. 

However, the party decided to make an open secret of coveting the third seat by luring away Opposition MLAs and banking on cross-voting. Ultimately, the Congress candidate, Ahmed Patel, won the seat in the first round itself, getting the required 44 votes. With two votes declared invalid by the Election Commission, the required votes came down from 45 to 44. The EC demonstrated independence and institutional strength amidst tremendous pressure mounted on it by both parties. It passed a clear order on sound legal grounds to invalidate the votes of two Congress MLAs, who had voted for the BJP, for showing their ballots to persons not authorised to see them. There is a precedent recorded last year in Haryana for violation of the secrecy clause, but the vote was then rejected by the Returning Officer on the spot, whereas in this case the paper was placed in the ballot box. The EC invoked statutory rules on voting procedure as well as its plenary powers under the Constitution to direct the Returning Officer to segregate the two votes and count the rest.

This bitter contest is a lesson on how Rajya Sabha elections should not be fought. The House derives its legitimacy from the fact that elected representatives of the people in State Assemblies constitute the electors. It is an abuse of this scheme for political parties to encourage cross-voting. When their strength in the Assembly is known, it is unseemly to field an extra candidate and force a contest. The run-up to the vote saw attempts to win over rival legislators and counter-poaching tactics. The Congress packed off its 44 MLAs to a resort in Bengaluru, where it is in power. This was followed by an income tax raid on a Karnataka minister. All this lent the impression that the BJP would stop at nothing to deny the Congress a seat. This was compounded by the fact that the Congress had nominated Mr. Patel, a close confidant of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and a power centre in the party. This gave the election the colour of a proxy tussle between the BJP and Congress leaderships. The ultimate outcome is a morale booster for the Congress at a time when it seems to lack vibrancy and vitality. As for the BJP, it should serve as a reminder that the pursuit of unquestioned political supremacy at the cost of democratic norms most often boomerangs.

Vocabulary

Biennial: taking place every other year.

Example: Summit meetings are normally biennial

Perception: the ability to see, hear, or become aware of something through the senses.

Example: The normal limits to human perception

Covet: yearn to possess or have something.

Example: The president-elect covets time for exercise and fishing

Synonyms: desire, yearn for, crave, have one's heart set on, want

Lure: tempt a person or an animal to do something or to go somewhere, especially by offering some form of reward.

Example: The child was lured into a car but managed to escape

Synonyms: tempt, entice, attract, induce, coax, persuade, inveigle, allure

Demonstrate: clearly show the existence or truth of something by giving proof or evidence.

Example: Their shameful silence demonstrates their ineptitude

Synonyms: reveal, bespeak, indicate, signify, signal, denote, show

Precedent: preceding in time, order, or importance.

Example: A precedent case

Synonyms: model, exemplar, example, pattern,  prior instance/example

Segregate: set apart from the rest or from each other; isolate or divide.

Example: Hazardous waste needs to be segregated from ordinary trash

Synonyms: separate, set apart, keep apart, isolate, quarantine, closet

Legitimacy: conformity to the law or to rules.

Example: Refusal to recognize the legitimacy of both governments

Vibrancy: the state of being full of energy and life.

Example: The vibrancy of the city centre

Vitality: the state of being strong and active; energy.

Example: Changes that will give renewed vitality to our democracy

Synonyms: liveliness, life, energy, spirit, vivacity, exuberance, buoyancy

Boomerang: return to the originator, often with negative consequences.

Example: Misleading consumers about quality will eventually boomerang on a carmaker

Synonyms: backfire, recoil, reverse, rebound, ricochet, be self-defeating