Topic of the day:-“A dangerous turn”
Political violence is commonplace in West Bengal, where every level of elections is fiercely contested. Over the last three years, however, the escalating violence has entered more dangerous terrain, with a marked increase in communal tension and rioting. On July 2 in Basirhat, an inflammatory Facebook post, allegedly by a 17-year-old, provoked a round of wanton violence orchestrated by some radical Muslim outfits in the North 24 Parganas district. While the person was arrested quickly, the State government displayed a lack of resolve to immediately halt the protests that led to blocked roads, an attack on a police station, and vandalisation of shops and houses in Basirhat and nearby areas. Paramilitary forces were finally deployed by July 4, returning a degree of calm but only after the damage had been done. Soon, accusations and recriminations followed as the BJP sought to make this a case of minority-led communalism while the ruling Trinamool Congress complained that the BJP was fanning communal tensions. The politics spilled over into a needless spat between Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, attended by allegations and name-calling. Rather than personalise and politicise a meeting between constitutional functionaries to extract political mileage, Ms. Banerjee should have shown greater initiative to defuse the situation by tackling the violence firmly and bringing to book those responsible for the acts of arson. The incidents in Basirhat seem eerily similar to what transpired in Kaliachak in Malda district in January 2016. Then, too, the State government had not shown alacrity in ending the violence, or acting against those responsible for it. Such communal violence is not common in West Bengal, which makes it all the more worrisome. The State had largely escaped the communal trouble that erupted in many parts of North India during the run-up to and in the wake of the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992. In terms of political discourse, the contestation between the Congress and the Left Front, and later with the TMC, was mainly on the basis of class politics or patronage. Ever since the Muslim peasantry, especially in southern Bengal, abandoned its support for the Left Front — a fallout of the anti-land acquisition agitations in Nandigram and Singur — the TMC has worked assiduously to consolidate its support among them. But it has done this by blatantly pandering to conservative and reactionary sections among Muslims, in the hope of earning the community’s support. Such an approach is exactly what the BJP, which was once electorally irrelevant in the State, feeds on in order to frame its own polarising narrative. From all accounts this has worked, as the party has grown into something of a political force in the State. Some of West Bengal’s districts have been hit particularly hard by the increasing hold of sectarian politics, which risks turning the State into a communal hot spot. Steps must be taken to urgently reverse this trend before further damage is done.
MEANINGS AND WORDS
1) RIOTING
Meaning: Take part in a violent public disturbance.
Example: Students rioted in Paris.
Synonyms: Rampage
2) ORCHESTRATED
Meaning: Plan or coordinate the elements of (a situation) to produce a desired effect, especially surreptitiously.
Example: The situation has been orchestrated by a tiny minority.
Synonyms: Organize, Arrange
Antonyms: Random
3) VANDALISATION
Meaning: The act of deliberately destroying or damaging public or private property.
Example: Due to vandalisation in the past, a security system has been installed in the house.
Synonyms: Trashing, Defacement
4) RECRIMINATIONS
Meaning: An accusation in response to one from someone else.
Example: There are no tears, no recriminations.
Synonyms: Accusation
5) EERILY
Meaning: In a strange and frightening manner.
Example: Their footsteps echoed eerily.
6) TRANSPIRED
Meaning: (of a secret or something unknown) come to be known; be revealed.
Example: It transpired that millions of dollars of debt had been hidden in a complex web of transactions.
Synonyms: Reveal, Discovered
Antonyms: Vanish, Conceal
7) ALACRITY
Meaning: Brisk and cheerful readiness.
Example: She accepted the invitation with alacrity.
Synonyms: Eagerness, Willingness
Antonyms: Apathy
8) DEMOLITION
Meaning: The action or process of demolishing or being demolished.
Example: The monument was saved from demolition.
Synonyms: Destruction, Clearance
Antonyms: Construction, Confirmation
9) CONTESTATION
Meaning: The action or process of disputing or arguing.
Example: Ideological contestation over social policy in the European Union.
Synonyms: Arguable
10) PATRONAGE
Meaning: The power to control appointments to office or the right to privileges.
Example: Recruits are selected on merit, not through political patronage.
Synonyms: Partiality, Partisanship
Antonyms: Opposition, Competition
11) ASSIDUOUSLY
Meaning: With great care and perseverance.
Example: Leaders worked assiduously to hammer out an action plan.
Synonyms: Actively, Intently
Antonyms: Quietly, Inactively
12) BLATANTLY
Meaning: In an open and unashamed manner.
Example: Yet another space show that blatantly disregarded scientific fact.
Synonyms: Obvious, Palpable
Antonyms: Inconspicuous, Subtle
13) REACTIONARY
Meaning: Opposing political or social progress or reform.
Example: Reactionary attitudes toward women’s rights.
Synonyms: Conservative
Antonyms: Radical, Progressive
14) POLARISING
Meaning: Restrict the vibrations of (a transverse wave, especially light) wholly or partially to one direction.
Example: Some of the light is polarized so that it vibrates in only one plane.
Synonyms: Separate, Divide
15) DEADLOCKED
Meaning: Cause (a situation or opposing parties) to come to a point where no progress can be made because of fundamental disagreement.
Example: The meeting is deadlocked.
Synonyms: Creek, Calm
Antonyms: Moving, Active
16) INTERLOCUTORS
Meaning: A person who takes part in a dialogue or conversation.
Example: Abraham was able to act as interpreter and interlocutor for our group.
Synonyms: Speaker, Talker
17) ANNEXING
Meaning: Add as an extra or subordinate part, especially to a document.
Example: The first ten amendments were annexed to the Constitution in 1791.
Synonyms: Attach, Join
18) RESTITUTION
Meaning: The restoration of something lost or stolen to its proper owner.
Example: The ANC had demanded the restitution of land seized from blacks.
Synonyms: Return, Restoration
Antonyms: Seizure, Occupation
19) ETHNIC
Meaning: Relating to a population subgroup (within a larger or dominant national or cultural group) with a common national or cultural tradition.
Example: Ethnic and cultural rights and traditions.
Synonyms: Racial, Genetic
20) SOOTHED
Meaning: Gently calm (a person or their feelings).
Example: A shot of brandy might soothe his nerves.
Synonyms: Calm, Quiet
Antonyms: Agitate, Disturb
