Topic Of the Day:-“History of forgetting”
Another problem is what one diplomat in the region calls ‘India’s big game hunting attitude’: “India chases its neighbours to cooperate on various projects and courts us assiduously, but once they have ‘bagged the game’, it forgets about us. As a result, crises grow until they can no longer be ignored, and the hunt begins again.” Over the past decade, since the defeat of the LTTE, India passed up offers to build the port in Hambantota, Colombo, and Kankesanthurai, despite Sri Lanka’s pressing need for infrastructure. At the time, given India’s crucial support in defeating the LTTE, Sri Lanka was considered “in the bag”. With the U.S. and other Western countries also taking strident positions over human rights issues and the reconciliation process, Chinese companies stepped in and won these projects, for which Sri Lanka recklessly took loans from China’s Exim bank. New Delhi has changed its position on Hambantota several times, going from initial apathy, to disapproval of the Chinese interest, to scoffingat the viability of the project, to open alarm at the possibility of any Chinese PLA-Navy installation in Sri Lanka’s southern tip. Finally this year, upturning everything it has said, the government decided to bid for the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport at Hambantota, a $205 million investment for the empty facility that sees an average of two flights a day. Even as a ‘listening post’, it is an expensive proposition, with some officials now suggesting a flight training school at Mattala to defray the cost. India is also hoping to win the bid to develop Trincomalee port with several projects. Clearly India is moving in now to build a counter to China in the neighbourhood, but it may be too little, too late and a little too expensive. India has also been ambivalent on tackling political issues in its region, often trapped between the more interventionist approach of the U.S., which has openly championed concerns over ‘democratic values’ and human rights in Sri Lanka, Maldives and Bangladesh, and the approach of China, which is to turn a blind eye to all but business and strategic interests. In Nepal, India lost out to China when it allowed a five-month-long blockade at the border, calling for a more inclusive constitution to be implemented by Kathmandu — but in the case of Myanmar, it lost precious ground in Bangladesh when Mr. Modi refused to mention the Rohingya refugee situation during a visit to Nay Pyi Taw. In both cases, India reversed its stand, adding to the sense that it is unsure of its next steps when dealing with neighbours on political issues.
MEANINGS AND WORDS
1) Hunting
Meaning: Search determinedly for someone or something.
Example: “he desperately hunted for a new job”
Synonyms: Search, Look
2) Assiduously
Meaning: With great care and perseverance.
Example: “leaders worked assiduously to hammer out an action plan”
Synonyms: Care
3) Strident
Meaning: (of a sound) loud and harsh; grating.
Example: “his voice had become increasingly strident”
Synonyms: Harsh, Grating
Antonyms: Soft, Dulcet
4) Reconciliation
Meaning: The restoration of friendly relations.
Example: “his reconciliation with your uncle”
Synonyms: Reunion, Conciliation
Antonyms: Alienation, Feud
5) Recklessly
Meaning: Without regard to the danger or the consequences of one’s actions; rashly.
Example: “he was driving recklessly and lost control”
Synonyms: Without danger
6) Scoffing
Meaning: Speak to someone or about something in a scornfully derisive or mocking way.
Example: “Patrick professed to scoff at soppy love scenes in films”
Synonyms: Mock, Ridicule
7) Upturning
Meaning: Turn (something) upwards or upside down.
Example: “a sea of upturned faces”
Synonyms: Improvement, High Level
Antonyms: Downturn
8) Bid
Meaning: An attempt or effort to achieve something.
Example: “he made a bid for power in 1984″
Synonyms: Attempt, Effort
9) Ambivalent
Meaning: Having mixed feelings or contradictory ideas about something or someone.
Example: “some loved her, some hated her, few were ambivalent about her”
Synonyms: Equivocal, Uncertain
Antonyms: Certain, Unequivocal
10) Interventionist
Meaning: Favouring intervention, especially by a government in its domestic economy or by one state in the affairs of another.
Example: “an economy currently dominated by state ownership and interventionist policies”
Synonyms: Intervene
