TOPIC – Straws in the wind
The stereotypical image of politicians in India in popular culture is mostly unflattering, but it is also somewhat unfair. Politics as a vocation is not an easy one and no one receives more scrutiny than legislators and politicians in public life and despite there being several things to improve upon, electoral democracy in India allows for a fair amount of accountability by empowering the voter to evaluate those contesting to represent them. Yet, if there is one act that reminds citizens of the tendencies of politicians, it is that of switching sides on the eve of fresh elections in a State. No State is spared of this act, and hardly any party escapes defections. In a world where principles and ideologies determine party affiliation, switching parties at the last minute would be a rare anomaly for there would have been ample time for disgruntled party men to rethink the bandwagon they had hitched themselves to. But in the real world, elections bring in hard calculations — politicians who sense a whiff of change in the mood of the electorate are ready to take the risk to switch. These occurrences are more pronounced when parties select their legislators on considerations such as caste/community identity — but they are no longer rare events even in States where the polity features a clear ideological divide, for instance, Kerala. But there are also occurrences — dime a dozen — when the electorate does not punish political opportunists and considerations other than legislative ability alone determine the electoral fortunes of contestants. In the case of Goa, a state with a small Assembly and which has a history of party-hopping, the spurt of defections of late should not come as a surprise. But the fact that electoral contestation in an already fractious polity with a high number of competitive political parties has now increased with the Trinamool Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party in the fray, has exacerbated matters by widening the choices for the political opportunist. In Uttar Pradesh, even considering the fact that such defections are routine, the spurt of MLAs switching sides from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to the Samajwadi Party (SP) should worry the ruling party, more so if the party hoppers are from the Other Backward Classes who had been diligently wooed and represented in the BJP to get an edge over the Mandal parties. The BJP could still take consolation in the fact that last-minute defections in West Bengal had little effect on the ruling Trinamool in the election last year but unlike in the eastern State, the politics of identity is more salient in Uttar Pradesh. This indicates that the political contest in a state where the ruling coalition secured 51.2% of the votes and led in 284 of the 403 Assembly segments in the State in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, is getting to be a close call with the SP putting up a spirited fight. At the very least, the aura of invincibility that the BJP had since 2014 is markedly absent. Although the Opposition camp is still divided, the erosion in the BJP support base is unmistakable.
The Hindu Editorial Words with meanings, synonyms, and antonyms
Unflattering (adjective) – Not flattering
Synonyms – Scathing, antagonistic, jaundiced, inimical
Antonyms – Honorific, fulsome, laudatory, rapturous
Spared (verb) – To have set aside or reserved for a particular purpose
Synonyms – Consecrated, entrusted, procured, ceded
Antonyms – Dispossessed, expropriated, inhibited, refused
Anomaly (noun) – Something that deviates from what is standard, normal, or expected
Synonyms – Aberration, eccentricity, glitch, peculiarity
Antonyms – Precept, inclusion, admittance, conformity
Disgruntled (adjective) – Angry or dissatisfied
Synonyms – Piqued, aggrieved, sullen, indignant
Antonyms – Serene, chuffed, euphoric, complacent
Hitched (verb) – Move (something) into a different position with a jerk
Synonyms – Anchored, clamped, tethered, bolted
Antonyms –Detached, discrete, isolated, disparate
Whiff (noun) – A smell that is only smelt briefly or faintly
Synonyms – Scent, fume, zest, piquancy, cologne
Antonyms – Aroma, malodor, fetor, stench
Spurt (verb) – Gush out in a sudden and forceful stream
Synonyms –Torrent, squirt, efflux, emanation
Antonyms –Trickle, implosion, completion, obedience
Fractious (adjective) – Irritable and quarrelsome
Synonyms –Peevish, grouchy, tetchy, crabby
Antonyms –Tractable, amenable, congenial, malleable
Fray (noun) – A fight or brawl
Synonyms –Tussle, ruction, scrimmage, tumult
Antonyms –Armistice, solace, entente, quietude
Exacerbated (verb) – To make worse or more severe
Synonyms –Augment, provoke, amplify, aggrandize
Antonyms –Appease, mollify, blunt, attenuate
Wooed (verb) – Seek the favor, support, or custom of
Synonyms –Cultivate, patronize, cherish, grovel
Antonyms –Disgust, disenchant, nauseate, dissuade
Invincibility (noun) – The quality of being too powerful to be defeated or overcome
Synonyms – Impregnability, insuperability, , invulnerability
Antonyms –Frailty, inferiority, cowardice, meekness
