THE HINDU Editorial Vocabulary - April 9, 2018 - Topic 2

The fall of Lula

The arrest of former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva after his conviction in a corruption case is a blow to his Workers’ Party, which hopes to return to power in the October general election. Mr. Lula da Silva, or simply ‘Lula’, had announced he would contest the poll, and was the front runner to become President. But after a federal judge rejected his request to remain free till his appeal options are exhausted, his eventful political career — which began as an organiser of metal workers when Brazil was under a dictatorship — seems to have come to an end. 

On Saturday he began his 12-year jail term, and asked supporters to “transform themselves” to keep the revolution going. Over the last few years, Brazil’s judges and prosecutors had launched a set of investigations into alleged corruption cases that became known as Lavo Jato, or Car Wash, targeting mainly Workers’ Party leaders. Dilma Rousseff, his chosen successor and Brazil’s first woman President, was impeached in August 2016 over allegations of cooking the country’s budget accounts. That brought an end to 13 years of Workers’ Party rule. With Mr. Lula da Silva now behind bars, the Workers’ Party, arguably the most powerful political organisation in Brazil with a strong base among the country’s poor and the working population, will face a challenge in its election campaign this year.

Prosecutors say Mr. Lula da Silva has been convicted in a proper trial and that he should be treated as any other citizen before the law. But his supporters as well as several international observers have raised questions about the judiciary’s stance. The case against him is that he accepted an apartment as bribe from a construction company as a quid pro quo for contracts granted. But there is no documentary evidence that either he or his wife owned the apartment, rented it out or stayed there. The evidence against him is the testimony of an executive of the company, which prosecutors got as part of a plea bargain. Still the judges found Mr. Lula da Silva guilty as they also concluded that the contracts given out to companies under his rule were overpriced. It is also no secret that several from the establishment elite wanted him out of politics. On the eve of the Supreme Court hearing of Lula’s appeal, the Army chief tweeted that the military “repudiates impunity”, apparently sending a message to the judiciary. By imprisoning its most popular leader on such weak evidence at a time when the polarised country is ruled by unelected elite, the judges may just have heightened the crisis in Brazil’s young, fraught democracy.

Vocabulary

Conviction: a firmly held belief or opinion.

Example: His conviction that the death was no accident

Synonyms: belief, opinion, view, thought, persuasion, idea, position

Reject: a person or thing dismissed as failing to meet standards or satisfy tastes.

Example: Some of the team's rejects have gone on to prove themselves in championships

Synonyms: failure, loser, incompetent

Dictatorship: government by a dictator.

Example: Forty years of dictatorship

Synonyms: absolute rule, undemocratic rule, despotism, tyranny, autocracy

Revolution: an instance of revolving.

Example: One revolution a second

Synonyms: turn, single turn, rotation, circle, spin, circuit, lap

Investigation: the action of investigating something or someone; formal or systematic examination or research.

Example: He is under investigation for receiving illicit funds

Synonyms: examination, inquiry, study, inspection, exploration, consideration

Impeach: call into question the integrity or validity of (a practice).

Example: There is no basis to Searle's motion to impeach the verdict

Synonyms: challenge, question, disparage, criticize, call into question

Arguably: it may be argued (used to qualify the statement of an opinion or belief).

Example: She is arguably the greatest woman tennis player of all time

Synonyms: possibly, conceivably, feasibly, plausibly, probably, maybe, perhaps

Observer: a person who watches or notices something.

Example: To a casual observer, he was at peace

Synonyms: spectator, onlooker, watcher, looker-on, fly on the wall, viewer

Quid pro quo: a favour or advantage granted in return for something.

Example: The pardon was a quid pro quo for their help in releasing hostages

Synonyms: exchange, trade, trade-off, swap, switch, barter

Conclude: arrive at a judgment or opinion by reasoning.

Example: The doctors concluded that Esther had suffered a stroke

Synonyms: deduce, infer, gather, judge, decide, conjecture, surmise

Appeal: an application to a higher court for a decision to be reversed.

Example: He has 28 days in which to lodge an appeal

Synonyms: retrial, re-examination

Crisis: a time of intense difficulty, trouble, or danger.

Example: The current economic crisis

Synonyms: emergency, disaster, catastrophe, calamity, predicament

Fraught: causing or affected by great anxiety or stress.

Example: There was a fraught silence

Synonyms: anxious, worried, stressed, upset, distraught, overwrought