THE HINDU EDITORIAL : JANUARY 25, 2019

Dear Banking Aspirants,

THE HINDU EDITORIAL – January 25, 2018, is one of the must-read section for the competitive exams like  NIACL AO Prelims Exam, IBPS SO Mains Exam. These topics are widely expected to be asked in the reading comprehension, Cloze Test or Error Detection in the forthcoming exams. So gear up your Exam preparation and learn new words daily.

Familial face: on Priyanka Gandhi becoming party secretary

Priyanka Gandhi can be a star campaigner, but the Congress still needs to flesh out its vision

In appointing his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as a general secretary of the party, Congress president Rahul Gandhi probably calculated that the benefits outweighed the risks. While the BJP lost no time in decrying the move as another instance of dynastic politics, the high-stakes manoeuvre could lift the profile of the Congress as a serious contender in the general election. In Uttar Pradesh, where it has been left high and dry in the seat-sharing deal between the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party, it sorely needs a dramatic turnaround in political fortunes. While her formal induction into politics may have been prompted by a number of factors, including the ill-health of her mother, former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, the charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh was surely meant as a signal to the SP and the BSP. Although her only previous formal role in politics was as the party’s campaign manager in Amethi and Rae Bareli, constituencies of her brother and mother, Ms. Vadra is high on charisma quotient, that intangible but nonetheless real quality that saw crowds gather in the party’s pocket boroughs. The Nehru-Gandhi lineage aside, Ms. Vadra commands a stage presence, helped no doubt by a resemblance to her grandmother Indira Gandhi. Whether she will take her mother’s place in Rae Bareli is not clear as yet, but this is a suggestion that there could be a long-term role.

In many ways, the nomination is an admission of the party’s over-reliance on the family, but to the credit of Mr. Gandhi, he has been engaging in wider consultations within the party on important decisions. The Congress is still a centralised party, and Mr. Gandhi is routinely authorised to take the final call on all matters big and small; but, equally, he has also shown the ability to step back in a spirit of accommodation in dealings with allied parties. That he did not declare himself as a prime ministerial candidate of the Opposition was born of tactical necessity; even so, he has shown a fair amount of maturity in dealing with a wide array of allies. During the Manmohan Singh years, the Congress was able to counter, to an extent at least, the perception that it revolved around the dynasty. And the BJP may not find much political purchase in linking Ms. Vadra’s appointment to dynastic politics; there will be no surprise, however, if it starts harping on her husband’s allegedly murky land dealings, which had cropped up during the 2014 election campaign. What should engage the Congress is not what the BJP may say about Ms. Vadra, but what she can say and do for it. The party needs much more than a star campaigner; it needs leaders that can revitalise the organisation by presenting it as an alternative to the BJP. For that, it will have to come up with a truly inclusive, egalitarian vision that privileges all-round development above all else.

VOCABULARY

1. Flesh Out

Meaning: to make (something) more complete by adding details

Synonyms: Increase, Augment

Antonyms: Abridge, Decrease

Example: Time to flesh out the few terse facts he’d told me about his home.

2. outweighed

Meaning: be heavier, greater, or more significant than.

Tamil Meaning: விட குறைவானதாகவே

Synonyms:  be heavier than, Be Greater than, Exceed

Antonyms: Fail, fall behind, Lose

Example: Dixon was outweighed by nearly two stone and was knocked down twice in the second round”

3. Decrying

Meaning: publicly denounce.

Tamil Meaning: இகழ்ந்துரை

Synonyms: Denounce, Condemn, Criticize

Antonyms: Praise, Overrate

Example: They decried human rights abuses

4. Manoeuvre

Meaning: a movement or series of moves requiring skill and care.

Tamil Meaning: மாற்றம்

Synonyms: Operation, Exercise, Activity, Move

Antonyms: Inaction, Ignorance

Example: “snowboarders performed daring manoeuvres on precipitous slopes”

5. Sorely

Meaning: to a very high degree or level of intensity.

Tamil Meaning: கடுமையாக

Synonyms: Acutely, Badly

Example: “she would sorely miss his company”

6. fortunes

Meaning: chance or luck as an arbitrary force affecting human affairs.

Tamil Meaning: அதிர்ஷ்டம்

Synonyms: Chance, Accident, coincidence

Antonyms: Hardship, Misfortune

Example: “some malicious act of fortune keeps them separate”

7. induction

Meaning: the action or process of inducting someone to a post or organization.

Tamil Meaning: பதவியில் அமர்த்து

Synonyms: Enlist, Inaugurate

Antonyms: Close, End, Finish

Example: “induction into membership of a Masonic brotherhood”

8. Campaign

Meaning: an organized course of action to achieve a goal.

Tamil Meaning: பிரச்சாரம்

Synonyms: crusade, drive, push, effort, struggle, move

Antonyms: Inaction

Example: “The Election campaign was held in New Delhi”

9. Charisma

Meaning: compelling attractiveness or charm that can inspire devotion in others.

Tamil Meaning: கவர்ச்சி

Synonyms: charm, presence, aura, personality

Example: “he has tremendous charisma and stage presence”

10. intangible

Meaning: unable to be touched; not having physical presence.

Tamil Meaning: தொட்டுணர முடியாத

Synonyms:  impalpable, untouchable

Antonyms: Factual, Definite, Real

Example: “the moonlight made things seem intangible”

11. boroughs

Meaning: a town sending representatives to Parliament.

Tamil Meaning: பெருநகரங்களில்

Example: Compared to the borough’s population, few aged in the fifties took part.

12. lineage

Meaning: direct descent from an ancestor; ancestry or pedigree.

Tamil Meaning: பரம்பரையில்

Synonyms: ancestry, family, parentage, birth

Example: “a Dutch nobleman of ancient lineage”

13. Resemblance

Meaning: the state of resembling or being alike.

Tamil Meaning: ஒற்றுமை

Synonyms: similarity, likeness, alikeness

Antonyms: Difference, Disagreement, Unlikeness, Divergence

Example: “they bear some resemblance to Italian figurines”

14. Engaging

Meaning: charming and attractive.

Tamil Meaning: ஈடுபாட்டை

Synonyms: charming, appealing, attractive

Antonyms: unappealing

Example: “an engaging smile”

15. consultations

Meaning: the action or process of formally consulting or discussing.

Tamil Meaning: ஆலோசனைகளை

Synonyms: Discussion, dialogue, discourse, debate

Example: “they improved standards in consultation with consumer representatives”

16. Allied

Meaning: joined by or relating to members of an alliance.

Tamil Meaning: கூட்டணி

Synonyms: Federated, confederated, federal

Antonyms: Disconnected, Uncombine, Disunited

Example: joined by or relating to members of an alliance.

17. Maturity

Meaning: the state, fact, or period of being mature.

Tamil Meaning: முதிர்ச்சி

Synonyms: Adulthood, full growth, majority

Antonyms: Ignorance, Incompetence, Impotence

Example: “the progress of an ingénue from childhood to maturity”

18. perception

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

Tamil Meaning: கருத்து

Synonyms: Approach, Attention, Attitude

Antonyms: Concrete, Stupidity, Ignorance

Example: “the normal limits to human perception”

19. murky

Meaning: obscure or morally questionable.

Tamil Meaning: மர்மமாகவே

Synonyms: dark, gloomy, grey, leaden

Antonyms: Bright, Clean, Happy

Example: “a government minister with a murky past”

20. egalitarian

Meaning: believing in or based on the principle that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities.

Tamil Meaning: சுத்தம் செய்

Example: “a fairer, more egalitarian society”

THE HINDU EDITORIAL : JANUARY 24, 2019