PARAGRAPH,WORDS AND MEANINGS

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Topic Of The Day:-“The Peace Holds: On Assam Blasts Case Verdict”

A harsher penalty in the 2008 Assam serial blasts case could have led to wider trouble

Rocked by protests against the Centre’s proposed Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, Assam’s Bodo-populated areas were on edge for another reason last week. Over a decade after nine serial bombsripped through four towns, the clamour for the death penalty to be awarded to theperpetrators had put the State on alert, after a district and sessions court set up for the CBI case had convicted 14 of them. The October 30, 2008 bombings exacted a severe toll. Eighty-eight deaths, 53 of them in Guwahati, with 540 injured, it was argued, passed the Supreme Court’s ‘rarest of the rare’ test. And yet, mindful of the “entire facts and circumstances of the case”, the judge on January 30 sentenced 10 of the convicted, including Ranjan Daimary, to life and handed out limited terms to the others. Most of the convicts belong to a faction of the National Democratic Front of Boroland, of which Daimary is the chairman. The NDFB(R) has had a ceasefire agreement with the Assam and Union governments since May 2005. The NDFB (Progressive), led by Gobinda Basumatary, is also in peace talks. Recent incidents in Bodo areas — including the May and December 2014 attacks against Muslim migrants and Adivasis, in which over 100 civilians were killed — have been attributed to the rebel NDFB faction, led earlier by I.K. Songbijit and now by B. Saoraigwra.These groups and their predecessors, many of which have given up arms and joined the formal political process, espouse causes ranging from secession to a Bodoland State carved out of Assam. The violent phase peaked in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but ebbed with the creation of the Bodoland Territorial Council in 2003. It absorbed the likes of Hagrama Mohilary, formerly a Bodo Liberation Tigers militant, whose Bodoland People’s Front has been an alliance partner of both the erstwhile Congress-led State government and the current BJP regime of Sarbananda Sonowal. While NDFB(R) supporters chanted slogans demanding Bodoland to protest against the judicial order, a death sentence for Daimary could have sparked wider convulsions, and pushed some of the fringe groups back into militancy, creating a 1990s redux. The BJP has backed the creation of smaller States, but Bodoland is unlikely to be realised any time soon. The Bodo case for statehood is also hamstrung by the fact that non-Bodos account for nearly 70% of the population in the Bodoland Territorial Area Districts that will comprise the core of such a State. New Delhi is focussing instead on devolving more powers with its constitution amendment Bill — likely to be introduced in Parliament this week — to bring 10 autonomous district councils under the purview of the Central Finance Commission. Along with ideologically agnostic partnerships with the State government in Dispur, this is the way forward for now.

MEANINGS AND WORDS

1) ripped

Meaning : under the influence of alcohol or illegal drugs(adj).

Synonyms : burst

Antonyms : sew

Example : “at the dress rehearsal, he was so ripped he couldn’t stand upright”

2) perpetrators

Meaning : a person who carries out a harmful, illegal, or immoral act.

Synonyms : assassin

Example : “the perpetrators of this horrific crime must be brought to justice”

3) convicted

Meaning : having been declared guilty of a criminal offence by the verdict of a jury or the decision of a judge.

Synonyms : imprison

Antonyms : release

Example : “a convicted murderer”

4) exacted

Meaning : demand and obtain (something) from someone.

Synonyms : compel

Antonyms : give

Example : “he exacted promises that another Watergate would never be allowed to happen”

5) faction

Meaning : a small organized dissenting group within a larger one, especially in politics.

Synonyms : minority

Antonyms : individual

Example : “the left-wing faction of the party”

6) espouse

Meaning : adopt or support (a cause, belief, or way of life).

Synonyms : defend

Antonyms : attack

Example : “she espoused the causes of justice and freedom for all”

7) carved

Meaning : (of a hard material) cut or engraved to produce an object, design, or inscription.

Synonyms : engraved

Antonyms : uncarved

Example : “bookcases of carved oak”

8) ebbed

Meaning : (of tidewater) move away from the land; recede.

Synonyms : deteriorate

Antonyms : expand

Example : “the tide began to ebb”

9) regime

Meaning : a government, especially an authoritarian one.

Synonyms : reign

Antonyms : disorder

Example : “ideological opponents of the regime”

10) chanted

Meaning : say or shout repeatedly in a sing-song tone(v).

Synonyms : intone

Example : “protesters were chanting slogans”

11) convulsions

Meaning : a sudden, violent, irregular movement of the body, caused by involuntary contraction of muscles and associated especially with brain disorders such as epilepsy(n).

Synonyms : contraction

Antonyms : harmony

Example : “toxic side effects like convulsions”

12) fringe

Meaning : an ornamental border of threads left loose or formed into tassels or twists, used to edge clothing or material(n).

Synonyms : edge

Antonyms : center

Example : “a long grey skirt with a fringe”

13) purview

Meaning : the scope of the influence or concerns of something.

Synonyms : attention

Antonyms : blindness

Example : “such a case might be within the purview of the legislation”

14) comprise

Meaning : consist of; be made up of.

Synonyms : compose

Antonyms : abandon

Example : “the country comprises twenty states”

15) agnostic

Meaning : relating to agnostics or agnosticism.

Synonyms : infidel

Antonyms : believer

16) hamstrung

Meaning : severely restrict the efficiency or effectiveness of(v).

Synonyms : cripple

Antonyms : allow

Example : “we were hamstrung by a total lack of knowledge”

17) clamour

Meaning : a loud and confused noise, especially that of people shouting.

Synonyms : commotion

Antonyms : silence

Example : “the questions rose to a clamour”

18) provision

Meaning : the action of providing or supplying something for use(n).

Synonyms : arrangement

Antonyms : removal

Example : “new contracts for the provision of services”

19) attributed

Meaning : regard something as being caused by.

Synonyms : apply

Antonyms : disconnect

Example : “he attributed the firm’s success to the efforts of the managing director”

20) erstwhile

Meaning : former(adj).

Synonyms : once

Example : “the erstwhile president of the company”

21) realised

Meaning : become fully aware of (something) as a fact; understand clearly(v).

Synonyms : completed

Antonyms : confused

Example : “he realized his mistake at once”