Topic Of The Day:-“Zia, Cornered: On Bnp Facing Setback In Bangladesh”
THE BNP SUFFERS YET ANOTHER SETBACK AS BANGLADESH’S ELECTIONS APPROACH
Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s conviction in yet another case of corruption imperils her Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s already meagre prospects in the coming parliamentary elections. She has been sentenced to seven years of rigorous imprisonment. With her son and acting chairman of the BNP, Tarique Rahman, in exile, and convicted in absentia and sentenced to life imprisonment for his alleged role in a grenade attack on an Awami League rally, the party’s leadership has been effectively crippled. It is no wonder that the BNP has formed an alliance, the Jatiya Oikya Front, with other minor parties, under the leadership of secular icon and civil society leader Kamal Hossain to bolster its fortunes in what looks like alopsided battle against the entrenched Awami League. The Awami League and the BNP have rarely engaged each other as healthy political rivals. There has been no love lost between the leaders of the two parties, Ms. Zia and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina: they have tended to view each other with a sense of vengeance. Yet it would be misleading to claim that the punitive actions ordered against the BNP’s leaders by the judiciary are entirely due to any pressure from the ruling party. The BNP’s last term in government, from 2001 to 2006, was marked by corruption, support for fundamentalism and repressive measures against the Opposition.
The BNP is now caught in a bind. It had boycotted the parliamentary election in 2014 to give the process a veneer of illegitimacy, leaving the Awami League as the only major political force in contention. But the BNP’s decision backfired. Bangladesh under Awami rule has recorded steady economic growth and has had creditable successes in welfare delivery and public health measures, seen tangibly in the lowered infant mortality and fertility rates and in sanitation. There have been some misgivings too, as Prime Minister Hasina has increasingly tended to be authoritarian and impatient with critics. While the judiciary has found the BNP’s leadership to be guilty of corruption and misdemeanours, the crackdown on the BNP rank and file, with thousands of activists targeted by the police, is a sign of the government’s overreach. A new digital security law, most ominously, has been passed with stringent punishment to anyone secretly recording state officials and spreading “negative propaganda” about the Liberation War, among other things. Thismanoeuvre is clearly intended to have a chilling effect on the Bangladeshi media. A healthy democracy must allow for differences of opinion. The government must not pursue this quasi-authoritarian bent at a time when its leading opposition has been emasculated. This would only help delegitimise the formal aspects of democracy, such as elections, among the government’s critics and the electorate.
Meanings and words
1) conviction
Meaning : a formal declaration by the verdict of a jury or the decision of a judge in a court of law that someone is guilty of a criminal offence.
Synonyms : certitude
Antonyms : uncertainty
Example : “she had a previous conviction for a similar offence”
2) imperils
Meaning : put at risk of being harmed, injured, or destroyed.
Synonyms : endangers
Antonyms : protects
Example : “they advised against tax increases for fear of imperilling the recovery”
3) meagre
Meaning : (of something provided or available) lacking in quantity or quality.(adj)
Synonyms : scanty
Antonyms : ample
Example : “they were forced to supplement their meagre earnings”
4) rigorous
Meaning : extremely thorough and careful.(adj)
Synonyms : strict
Antonyms : lenient
Example : “the rigorous testing of consumer products”
5) grenade
Meaning : a small bomb thrown by hand or launched mechanically.
Synonyms : munition
Example : They threw in a grenade last time.
6) crippled
Meaning : (of a person) unable to walk or move properly; disabled.
Synonyms : disabled
Antonyms : fit
Example : “a crippled old man”
7) lopsided
Meaning : with one side lower or smaller than the other.
Synonyms : unequal
Antonyms : balanced
Example : “a lopsided grin”
8) entrenched
Meaning : (of an attitude, habit, or belief) firmly established and difficult or unlikely to change; ingrained.
Synonyms : confirmed
Antonyms : vulnerable
Example : “an entrenched resistance to change”
9) rivals
Meaning : a person or thing competing with another for the same objective or for superiority in the same field of activity.
Synonyms : opponents
Antonyms : partners
Example : “he has no serious rival for the job”
10) outskirts
Meaning : the outer parts of a town or city.
Synonyms : edge
Antonyms : core
Example : “he built a new factory on the outskirts of Birmingham”
11) claim
Meaning : state or assert that something is the case, typically without providing evidence or proof.(v)
Synonyms : assert
Antonyms : deny
Example : “the Prime Minister claimed that he was concerned about Third World debt”
12) punitive
Meaning : inflicting or intended as punishment.
Synonyms : harsh
Antonyms : reward
Example : “he called for punitive measures against the Eastern bloc”
13) bind
Meaning : tie or fasten (something) tightly together.(n)
Synonyms : tie
Antonyms : intervene
Example : “logs bound together with ropes”
14) boycotted
Meaning : withdraw from commercial or social relations with (a country, organization, or person) as a punishment or protest.
Synonyms : banned
Antonyms : frequented
Example : “we will boycott all banks which take part in the loans scheme”
15) contention
Meaning : an assertion, especially one maintained in argument.
Synonyms : conflict
Antonyms : affection
Example : “Freud’s contention that all dreams were wish fulfilment”
16) tangibly
Meaning : perceptible by touch.(adj)
Synonyms : palpable
Antonyms : abstract
Example : “the atmosphere of neglect and abandonment was almost tangible“
17) stringent
Meaning : (of regulations, requirements, or conditions) strict, precise, and exacting.
Synonyms : harsh
Antonyms : flexible
Example : “stringent guidelines on air pollution”
18) ominously
Meaning : giving the worrying impression that something bad is going to happen; threateningly inauspicious.
Synonyms : menacing
Antonyms : hopeful
Example : “there were ominous dark clouds gathering overhead”
19) manoeuvre
Meaning : a movement or series of moves requiring skill and care.
Synonyms : artifice
Antonyms : tautness
Example : “snowboarders performed daring manoeuvres on precipitous slopes”
20) bent
Meaning : sharply curved or having an angle.
Synonyms : disposition
Antonyms : straight
Example : “a piece of bent wire”
21) pursue
Meaning : follow or chase (someone or something).
Synonyms : follow
Antonyms : ignore
Example : “the officer pursued the van”
22) emasculated
Meaning : deprive (a man) of his male role or identity.(v)
Synonyms : castrate
Antonyms : fortify
Example : “he feels emasculated, because he cannot control his sons’ behaviour”
