THE HINDU EDITORIAL : AUGUST 13, 2018

THE HINDU EDITORIAL – August 13, 2018 is one of the must read section for the competitive exams like IBPS RRB PO, IBPS RRB Office Assistant 2018, RBI Grade “B” 2018 & NIACL Assistant 2018. These topics are widely expected to be asked in the reading comprehension , Cloze Test or Error Detection topics in the forthcoming exams. So gear up your Exam preparation and learn new words daily.

a) BCCI revamp: On Lodha panel recommendations

Two years after accepting the Justice R.M. Lodha Committee’s recommendations, the Supreme Court has now extended some concessions to those aggrieved by the rigorous rules, which aimed to revamp cricket administration in the country. The reasoning given in the order of a three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra suggests that it is a pragmatic modification rather than a significant climbdown. Justice Lodha, a former Chief Justice of India, however, feels that the court has now knocked out the foundation of his recommendations. The most significant change concerns the cooling-off period prescribed for office-bearers before they are allowed to contest for a subsequent term. Against the panel’s view that every office-bearer of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, in the national board or in a State association, should have a three-year break after a three-year term, the court has now allowed two three-year terms — that is, a tenure of six years — before the mandatory break kicks in. The logic behind a cooling-off period is that office-bearers should not be given lengthy tenures that enable them to establish personal fiefdoms. The argument against it is that the experience and knowledge that an office-bearer gains over three years should not be frittered away, and a second term could help consolidate such learnings. The Bench has accepted the logic behind this and chosen to defer the cooling-off period until she completes two terms. Given that there is a nine-year aggregate limit as well as an age limit of 70 for any office-bearer, this change may not amount to any significant dilution of the core principle that there should be no perpetuation of power centres. The Lodha panel had also favoured the ‘one State, one vote’ norm. This meant that an association representing a State alone should be recognised as a voting member of the BCCI, while associations representing a region within a State or entities that do not represent a territory should not have the same vote or status. This norm has been overruled. Gujarat and Maharashtra will have three votes each, as the associations of Baroda and Saurashtra in Gujarat, and Mumbai and Vidarbha in Maharashtra will have separate votes. In this, too, the court has accepted the reasoning that associations that had contributed significantly to Indian cricket need not be stripped of their full membership. It is now up to the administrators of the future to dispel Justice Lodha’s apprehensions that this may lead to manipulation of votes. Whether the changes adopted by the court while finalising a new constitution for the BCCI differ in significant ways from what was proposed by the Lodha committee will be a matter of debate. However, judicial intervention has been immensely helpful in making cricket administration more efficient and professional, and addressing the credibility deficit of recent times.

b) A complicated man: On Sir Vidia

Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul, who passed away at his London home on August 11 just six days short of his 86th birthday, will continue to challenge his readers and critics after death as he did in a writing career spanning more than five decades. It’s the way with great writers, and Naipaul’s claim to being among the greatest of them was settled long before he won the Nobel prize in 2001 — but he defied simple appraisals more than anybody else. To read Naipaul, to listen to him, to follow his life story, was to be perpetually nudged to reassess not just him, but also his subject matter and one’s own view of the world. He once said, “All my work is really one. I am writing one big book.” In that big book, he kept pushing back the chronological beginnings to understand how colonialism and migration shaped the modern world, and travelling ever wider to examine how post-colonial societies shape-shifted. It was an endeavour that started, and never veered too far, from his own biography. Born in Trinidad to parents of Indian origin, whose forebears had come to the West Indies as indentured labour, Naipaul was consumed by one ambition: to be a writer. It was, in large measure, acquired from his father, a journalist in Port of Spain struggling with the needs and bickering of a sprawling family and the lack of intellectual wherewithal to realise his dream. His father’s story would inspire Naipaul’s A House for Mr Biswas (1961), part of an early-life burst of brilliant fiction that began with Miguel Street, written when he was just out of Oxford University, and concluded in 1979 with A Bend in the River. It was Naipaul’s travels, however, that spanned the greater part of his writing life as he crafted his own way of seeing the world. He said in his Nobel lecture that as a child in Trinidad he felt himself “surrounded by areas of darkness”, and these became his subjects. He travelled across continents, always with a theme in mind. He opened up lines of inquiry on identity and progress. His unsparing eye and spare, clear prose ensured that readers could not un-see what he saw, whether they were in agreement or not. He was criticised for depicting the developing world through an imperial filter; he was accused of Islamophobia in his travels in Muslim countries; he raised hackles with his India trilogy — An Area of Darkness (1964), A Wounded Civilisation (1977), A Million Mutinies Now (1990). But he presciently bookmarked the debates that coming events would spark. There was definitely low-grade bigotry at play, and misogyny, too. Naipaul’s writings are too important to be overlooked on account of his intolerance; equally, his opinions cannot be excused while understanding his literary legacy.

WORDS/ VOCABULARY

1) Aggrieved

Meaning: Feeling resentment at having been unfairly treated.

Example: “they were aggrieved at the outcome”

Synonyms: Resentful, Disturbed

Antonyms: Pleased

2) Rigorous

Meaning: (of a rule, system, etc.) strictly applied or adhered to.

Example: “rigorous controls on mergers”

Synonyms: Strict, Severe

Antonyms: Lax

3) Revamp

Meaning: Give new and improved form, structure, or appearance to.

Example: “an attempt to revamp the museum’s image”

Synonyms: Renovate, Redecorate

4) Pragmatic

Meaning: Dealing with things sensibly and realistically in a way that is based on practical rather than theoretical considerations.

Example: “a pragmatic approach to politics”

5) Climbdown

Meaning: An occasion when you change your opinion or admit that you were wrong.

Example: Saying she was wrong was a difficult climbdown for Sarah.

6) Knocked out

Meaning: To produce something quickly without spending time thinking about the details.

Example: I’ve knocked out a first draft of the report that we can amend at a later date.

7) Cooling-off period

Meaning: An agreed length of time in which someone can decide not to buy something they have agreed to buy, or a period in which two groups who are arguing can try to improve the situation before taking further action.

Example: There is a 20-day cooling-off period in which the investor can choose to back out of the contract.

8) Office-bearers

Meaning: A person who holds a position of authority and responsibility in a government or other organization.

Example: The new office-bearer was briefed on his responsibilities.

9) Tenure

Meaning: The holding of an office.

Example: “his tenure of the premiership would be threatened”

Synonyms: Incumbency, Term

10) Fiefdoms

Meaning: A territory or sphere of operation controlled by a particular person or group.

Example: “a mafia boss who has turned the town into his private fiefdom”

11) Frittered away

Meaning: To waste money, time, or an opportunity.

Example: If I’ve got money in my pocket, I tend to fritter it away.

12) Defer

Meaning: Put off (an action or event) to a later time; postpone.

Example: “they deferred the decision until February”

Synonyms: Postpone, Adjourn

13) Dilution

Meaning: The action of making something weaker in force, content, or value.

Example: “he is resisting any dilution of dogma”

14) Perpetuation

Meaning: The continuation or preservation of a situation, idea, etc.

Example: “we criticized the perpetuation of racial stereotypes”

15) Overruled

Meaning: Reject or disallow by exercising one’s superior authority.

Example: “Chief Judge Moran overruled the government’s objections”

Synonyms: Cancel, Reverse

Antonyms: Allow, Accept

16) Stripped of

Meaning: To take something away from someone, sometimes in a way that seems unfair or dishonest.

Example: About 40,000 people may be stripped of their pensions because their employers have gone into administration.

17) Manipulation

Meaning: The action of manipulating something in a skilful manner.

Example: “the format allows fast picture manipulation”

18) Credibility

Meaning: The quality of being convincing or believable.

Example: “the book’s anecdotes have scant regard for credibility”

Synonyms: Acceptability, Probability

19) Spanning

Meaning: Extend across (a period of time or a range of subjects).

Example: “their interests span almost all the conventional disciplines”

Synonyms: Last, Cover

20) Settled

Meaning: Reach a decision about; determine.

Example: “exactly what goes into the legislation has not been settled”

Synonyms: Set, Fix

21) Defied

Meaning: Openly resist or refuse to obey.

Example: “a woman who defies convention”

Synonyms: Disobey, Ignore

Antonyms: Obey, Surrender

22) Perpetually

Meaning: In a way that never ends or changes; constantly.

Example: “perpetually hungry teenage boys”

23) Nudged

Meaning: To move slowly and almost reach a higher point or level; to encourage or persuade someone to do something in a way that is gentle rather than forceful or direct

Example: Oil prices continue to nudge higher.

24) Chronological

Meaning: (of a record of events) following the order in which they occurred.

Example: “the entries are in chronological order”

Synonyms: Sequential, Consecutive

Antonyms: Random

25) Colonialism

Meaning: The policy or practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically.

Example: “the state apparatus that was dominant under colonialism”

26) Endeavour

Meaning: An attempt to achieve a goal.

Example: “an endeavour to reduce serious injury”

Synonyms: Attempt, Try

27) Veered

Meaning: Suddenly change an opinion, subject, type of behaviour, etc.

Example: “the conversation eventually veered away from theatrical things”

28) Indentured

Meaning: Bind (someone) by an indenture as an apprentice or labourer.

Example: “Dick was indentured to the Company in 1917”

29) Bickering

Meaning: Argue about petty and trivial matters.

Example: “couples who bicker over who gets what from the divorce”

Synonyms: Squabble, Argue

Antonyms: Agree

30) Sprawling

Meaning: Existing or reaching over a large area.

Example: The sprawling city of Los Angeles.

31) Wherewithal

Meaning: The money or other means needed for a particular purpose.

Example: “they lacked the wherewithal to pay”

Synonyms: Money, Capital

32) Spanned

Meaning: Extend across (a period of time or a range of subjects).

Example: “their interests span almost all the conventional disciplines”

Synonyms: Last, Cover

33) Unsparing

Meaning: Merciless; severe.

Example: “he is unsparing in his criticism of the arms trade”

Synonyms: Merciless, Ruthless

34) Ensured

Meaning: Make certain that (something) will occur or be the case.

Example: “the client must ensure that accurate records are kept”

35) Depicting

Meaning: Portray in words; describe.

Example: “youth is depicted as a time of vitality and good health”

36) Imperial

Meaning: Relating to an empire.

Example: “Britain’s imperial past”

Synonyms: Royal, Majestic

37) Raised hackles

Meaning: To annoy someone.

Example: The president’s speech has raised hackles among members of the opposing party.

38) Trilogy

Meaning: (in ancient Greece) a series of three tragedies performed one after the other.

Example: “the Aeschylean trilogy”

39) Bigotry

Meaning: Intolerance towards those who hold different opinions from oneself.

Example: “the difficulties of combating prejudice and bigotry”

Synonyms: Prejudice, Bias

Antonyms: Tolerance

40) Misogyny

Meaning: Dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against women.

Example: “she felt she was struggling against thinly disguised misogyny”

THE HINDU EDITORIAL : AUGUST 10, 2018

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