Newspaper Editorials With Vocab 26/4/2016

#everydayquiz #TheHindu #IndianExpress #BusinessStandard #TheDNA

The DNA: Lessons from Malegaon

A Mumbai court on Monday discharged eight of the accused in the September, 2006, Malegaon terror attack case, in which 37 people were killed. It was a serious attack because Malegaon is known to be a communally sensitive town in the state. There was another terrorist assault in 2008 as well.

The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the state government had pointed an accusing finger at members of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). The ATS’s conclusions were backed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). But the case took a turn when the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) took over the case. It had disagreed with the ATS and CBI. It told the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court that there was no evidence against the accused youth, who happen to be Muslims.

Surprisingly, the NIA has opposed the discharge despite there being no evidence against the accused. The court has however decided on discharging the accused, who had spent time in prison from 2006 to 2011, and who have alleged that they have been subjected to custodial torture. This does not however follow that it is the Abhinav Bharat group, comprising Aseemanand, and Colonel Purohit, who are then responsible for the blasts. It remains a separate investigation and the court has to arrive at its own conclusion. It has also to be noted that two of the eight discharged in this case have been convicted in the July 7, 2011, Mumbai train blasts.

This is not the first time that Muslim youth accused of a terrorist act have been found innocent. In the Mecca Masjid blast case of 2007 too, the accused youth after prolonged police custody and alleged torture had to be freed because the investigation could not produce evidence against them.

What makes the Malegaon blasts investigation thorny is the issue of whether the culprits were Muslims or Hindus. The ATS and CBI thought they were Muslims. The NIA has unearthed the Abhinav Bharat angle. The basic question should have been as to who are the individuals behind the terror blasts, and not whether they were Hindus and Muslims. A terrorist attack cannot be seen in terms of jihadi or saffron terror. Investigations will follow an unfair course if communal assumptions are the driving force behind the investigations. A major lesson to be learned from the Malegaon case is that it has to remain a purely criminal investigation and extraneous biases cannot be allowed to impact the case.

It would be unfair to blame the police for their initial prejudices. Unconscious communal prejudices will be at play. It would be better that the police be aware of them rather than deny them altogether. There have to be checks and balances at different stages of investigation. The courts have maintained fair standards of impartiality while dealing with terror cases. But margins of error cannot be ruled out because neither the judges nor the investigators are infallible.

What makes the issue explosive and unduly charged is the partisan public discourse in the country from the Hindu and Muslim right-wingers on the one hand, and the self-proclaimed liberal intelligentsia on the other. Sections of the media too tend to support one or the other of the two. These debates do affect how terror cases are perceived by the public. It would be futile to sanitise public discourse. Partisan positions will remain loud and strident. It is then left to the investigators and the courts to walk the narrow of path of fairness and impartiality.

Thorny (PROBLEM/SUBJECT)

> A thorny ​problem or ​subject is ​difficult to ​deal with:

The thorny ​issue of ​taxation

Unearth

› to ​discover something in the ​ground:

Building at the ​site was ​halted after ​human ​remains were unearthed ​earlier this ​month.

› to ​discover ​proof or some other ​information, ​especially after ​careful ​searching:

A ​private ​detective has unearthed some ​fresh ​evidence.

Extraneous

› not ​directly ​connected with or ​related to something:

Extraneous ​information

Prejudice

> an ​unfair and ​unreasonable ​opinion or ​feeling, ​especially when ​formed without enough ​thought or ​knowledge:

Laws against ​racial prejudice must be ​strictly ​enforced.

[+ that] The ​campaign ​aims to ​dispel the prejudice that ​AIDS is ​confined to the ​homosexual ​community.

Infallible

› never ​wrong, ​failing, or making a ​mistake:

Even the ​experts are not infallible.

Futile

› (of ​actions) having no ​effect or ​achieving nothing:

Attempts to get ​supplies to the ​region are futile because ​troops will not ​allow the ​aid ​convoy to ​enter the ​city.

Strident (LOUD)

› A strident ​sound is ​loud, ​unpleasant, and ​rough:

People are put off by his strident ​voice.

Strident (FORCEFUL)

› ​expressing or ​expressed in ​forceful ​language that does not ​try to ​avoid ​upsetting other ​people:

A strident ​newspaper ​article

They are ​becoming ​increasingly strident in ​their ​criticism of ​government ​economic ​policy.

The Hindu: Of umbrage and exception

Counselling caution is not easy in public life. Be too subtle, and you risk falling below the radar. Sharpen your observations to get the point home, and you risk upsetting sensitivities, genuine as well as contrived. Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan’s remark seeking to put India’s economic performance in perspective has drawn predictable criticism. Using a familiar Hindi metaphor, “andhon mein kana raja”, or “in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king”, he had warned against exulting about India’s seven-odd per cent GDP growth amid a global slowdown. In the course of an interview on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund’s spring meeting, he said our growth figures must not make us believe that all is on track, and went on to count the green shoots of recovery India needs to nurture. It has long been Dr. Rajan’s theme song that economic management needs leadership to be on top of every possible anxiety. In 2005, it led him to wade against the feel-good current of the heady pre-2008 era, and warn a gathering of leading economists in Wyoming, U.S., that crafty instruments such as credit default swaps were endangering the financial system. They didn’t listen. And post-2008, Dr. Rajan instantly acquired an oracular aura. And in his current job as Governor of the central bank, he has continued to heed every collective anxiety and recommend that India redouble its efforts to grow faster.

That was perhaps the background for the “one-eyed king” metaphor. But Dr. Rajan has had to wheel back, and apologise for any hurt he may have caused the blind or visually impaired. Clearly, in the post-Greenspan age, a central banker does not have the defences available to the brainy professor to blink his way out of misconstrued, if not misconstructed, sentences. In fact, no one within coughing distance of a political stage does. Ask Gloria Steinem, who worried that young American women were missing the feminist logic of supporting Hillary Clinton in her quest for the Democratic nomination, as the “boys” were with rival Bernie Sanders. Or ask Shashi Tharoor. He’s had to explain himself hoarse to retrieve context for his comparison of Kanhaiya Kumar to Bhagat Singh. In a media culture of too much information, often it is the juiciest and potentially most controversial that spins the news and social media cycle. Words are easily taken out of context and their repetition frays even reasonably thick skins, and in the end we are all a collection of raw nerves. Public figures have the option of waging their argument regardless, and pausing only for the politically correct, and humane, apology — as Dr. Rajan did. Or of heeding the advice that his predecessor as Chief Economic Adviser, Kaushik Basu, got when he moved out of academia into a Raisina Hill office: “I should make sure not only that no sentence of mine conveyed some unwarranted message but also that no consecutive set of words within the sentence conveyed a wrongful message since in reporting my comments the media, in their eagerness to make news, could drop words at the start and end of my sentences.”

Take umbrage

› to ​feel ​upset or ​annoyed, usually because you ​feel that someone has been ​rude or ​shown no ​respect to you:

Will she take umbrage if she isn't ​invited to the ​wedding?

Subtle

> not ​loud, ​bright, ​noticeable, or ​obvious in any way:

The ​room was ​painted a subtle ​shade of ​pink.

The play's ​message is ​perhaps too subtle to be ​understood by ​young ​children.

› ​small but ​important:

There is a subtle ​difference between these two ​plans.

Contrived

› ​artificial and ​difficult to ​believe:

I ​enjoyed the ​film, but ​felt the ​ending was a ​bit contrived.

His ​excuse ​sounded a ​bit contrived.

Exult

› to ​express ​great ​pleasure or ​happiness, ​especially at someone else's ​defeat or ​failure:

They exulted at/over ​their ​victory.

Wade

› to ​walk through ​water or other ​liquid with some ​effort, because it is ​deep enough to come ​quite high up ​your ​legs, or ​thick :

The ​river was ​full but we ​managed to wade ​across.

We waded a ​shallow ​river.

Oracular

› ​mysterious and ​difficult to ​understand, but ​probably ​wise:

An oracular ​statement

Misconstrue

› to ​form a ​false ​understanding of the ​meaning or ​intention of something that someone does or says:

She said Harris had misconstrued her ​comments.

Hoarse

› (of a ​voice or a ​person) having a ​rough ​voice, often because of a ​sore ​throat or a ​cold:

A hoarse ​voice

She ​sounded a ​bit hoarse.

The Hindu: A desperate situation

The pendency of cases in India’s overburdened and understaffed judiciary is well documented. The emotional appeal made by Chief Justice T.S. Thakur on Sunday in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has added a sense of poignancy and urgency to the issue. The numbers are startling: against a perceived requirement of about 50,000 judges, the country has a judicial strength of a mere 18,000, while more than three crore cases are pending in various courts. In the Supreme Court, the current pendency is 60,260 for a Bench consisting of 31 judges. As many as 434 posts of High Court judges are vacant, while a docket burden of 38.68 lakh cases is stretching available infrastructure and resources. The problem, however, is not new, and the current crisis has been bearing down on the judiciary for some years now. Occasional observations made by the superior judiciary on the alarming state of affairs, be it as part of court proceedings or at formal functions where Law Ministers and judges congregate, elicit some sympathetic noises or ad hoc responses. But substantive and concrete measures to resolve the twin problems of mounting arrears and chronic shortage of judicial resources are not forthcoming. Thus, the sense of frustration palpable in the appeal by the Chief Justice is entirely understandable.

The litigation over the National Judicial Appointments Commission, which ended with the Supreme Court striking down both a constitutional amendment and legislation to establish the body, may have delayed some appointments. But with no change envisaged in the memorandum of procedure for fresh appointments to the superior courts, neither the government nor the Collegium should be bogged down anymore by differences, if any, over individual recommendations. However, the Chief Justice was not merely drawing attention to delays on the part of the executive in clearing appointments to the higher judiciary; he was also hinting at the absence of any significant initiative to increase the strength of the subordinate judiciary and the lack of empathy for poor litigants and undertrial prisoners, who suffer the most because of judicial delay. The situation demands an ambitious infusion of manpower and financial resources, for which even State governments will have to contribute immensely. It is said that a modern society would ideally need 50 judges per million population. However, the Law Commission, in its 245th report two years ago, had pointed to the impracticability of using the number of judges per million population (the official figure for India in 2013 was 16.8) as a criterion to assess the required judicial strength. Instead, it had suggested a ‘rate of disposal’ method by which the number of judges required at each level to dispose of a particular number of cases could be computed based on analysis. The Centre and the judiciary should collaborate on finding practical solutions: appointing more judges, including retired judges as ad hoc judicial officers, based on periodic needs assessments, increasing their retirement age, and deploying judicial resources efficiently.

Desperate adjective (SERIOUS)

> very ​serious or ​bad:

Desperate ​poverty

A desperate ​shortage of ​food/​supplies

The ​situation is desperate - we have no ​food, very little ​water and no ​medical ​supplies.

› very ​great or ​extreme:

The ​earthquake ​survivors are in desperate need of ​help.

He has a desperate ​desire to ​succeed.

Poignant

› ​causing or having a very ​sharp ​feeling of ​sadness:

The ​photograph ​awakens poignant ​memories of ​happier ​days.

It is ​especially poignant that he ​died on the ​day before the ​wedding.

Startling

› ​surprising and sometimes ​worrying:

Startling ​results

He made some startling ​admissions about his past.

Elicit

› to get or ​produce something, ​especially ​information or a ​reaction:

Have you ​managed to elicit a ​response from them ​yet?

Ad hoc

› made or ​happening only for a ​particular ​purpose or need, not ​planned before it ​happens:

An ad hoc ​committee/​meeting

Mounting

› ​gradually ​increasing:

Mounting ​anxiety/​excitement

Palpable

› so ​obvious that it can ​easily be ​seen or ​known, or (of a ​feeling) so ​strong that it ​seems as if it can be ​touched or ​physically ​felt:

A palpable ​effect

Her ​joy was palpable.

Envision

› to ​imagine or ​expect that something is a ​likely or ​desirable ​possibility in the ​future:

He envisioned a ​partnership between ​business and ​government.

The ​company envisions ​adding at least five ​stores next ​year.

Be/get bogged down

› to be/​become so ​involved in something ​difficult or ​complicated that you cannot do anything ​else:

Let's not get bogged down with ​individual ​complaints

UK Try not to get too bogged down in the ​details.

Indian Express: Blunder on Isa

Last week, when news broke that India had granted ethnic Uyghur dissident Dolkun Isa a visa to attend a conference in Dharamsala, New Delhi’s policy community all but rang temple bells in celebration. Finally, enthusiasts trilled, the muscular China diplomacy Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised was in play — handing long-overdue payback to China for blocking Delhi’s efforts to have Jaish-e-Muhammad chief Masood Azhar sanctioned by the UN. The euphoria crumbled on Monday, when the external affairs ministry announced it had cancelled Isa’s visa, in response to irate Chinese protests. Delhi’s official position is that Isa, who holds a German passport, applied for and obtained a tourist visa online, which was not valid for visitors wanting to attend conferences. There was no intention to send any diplomatic message to Beijing by granting a visa to Isa, the MEA said — and thus, no question of back-peddling by revoking it.

Delhi’s explanation is disingenuous. The government, like the public, has long known that a coalition of Chinese dissidents — among them, figures hailing from terrorism-torn Xinjiang, members of the Falun Gong sect, and democratic rights activist Jianli Yang — were scheduled to meet with the Tibetan leadership in exile later this month. No meeting like this could have been organised without the Indian government’s consent, so the question of whether Isa had the right kind of visa or not is largely academic. The fact that such a meeting is being held is meant to signal Delhi’s ire at Beijing’s refusal to acknowledge its concerns on terrorism.

Delhi, though, had reason to back down. For all the bad press China gets in India, the fact is it doesn’t provide Indian separatists a platform in Beijing: There are no Hurriyat Conference seminars in the Forbidden City, nor lobbying offices for Northeast insurgents. Had India allowed Isa to come, there’s no doubt China would have retaliated, thus sparking off a series of tit-for-tat actions. Moreover, the gains from having Azhar sanctioned are low: UN sanctions against thelashkar-e-Taiba, for example, or for that matter against al-Qaeda, have done little to degrade those terror groups. There’s no doubt that India must find the means to respond to China’s disgraceful stonewalling on the sanctions issue, but it must be tempered by cold-blooded appraisal of the costs against the — minimal — gains. Giving Isa a visa was the equivalent of administering the dragon a kick in the shin — an act that, satisfying as it might be, was profoundly unlikely to coerce it into good behaviour. Taming the dragon will need thought-through strategy, not the showy bravado of the schoolboy that this sad affair put on display for the world to see.

Dissident

› a ​person who ​publicly ​disagrees with and ​criticizes ​their ​government:

​political dissidents

Euphoria

› ​extreme ​happiness, sometimes more than is ​reasonable in a ​particular ​situation:

They were in a ​state of euphoria for ​days after they ​won the ​prize.

Crumble

> to ​break, or ​cause something to ​break, into ​small ​pieces:

She ​nervously crumbled the ​bread between her ​fingers.

The ​cliffs on which the ​houses are ​built are ​starting to crumble.

› to ​become ​weaker in ​strength or ​influence:

Support for the ​government is crumbling.

Irate

› very ​angry:

We have ​received some irate ​phone ​calls from ​customers.

Disingenuous

› (of a ​person or ​their ​behaviour) ​slightly ​dishonest, or not ​speaking the ​complete ​truth:

It was disingenuous of her to ​claim she had no ​financial ​interest in the ​case.

Retaliate

› to ​hurt someone or do something ​harmful to someone because they have done or said something ​harmful to you:

If someone ​insults you, don't retaliate as it only makes the ​situation ​worse.

Stonewall

› to ​stop a ​discussion from ​developing by ​refusing to ​answer ​questions or by ​talking in such a way that you ​prevent other ​people from giving ​their ​opinions:

The ​interviewer ​accused the ​minister of stonewalling on the ​issue of ​tax ​increases.

Cold-blooded

› ​behaving in a very ​cruel way with no ​sympathy for other ​people:

A cold-blooded ​murder

Coerce

› to ​persuade someone ​forcefully to do something that they are ​unwilling to do:

The ​court ​heard that the six ​defendants had been coerced into making a ​confession.

Business Standard: Twin narratives

Two long-running controversies that are likely to disrupt the Budget session of Parliament, which convened on Monday after a recess, highlight a troubling element about the ethics of governance in India, irrespective of the party in power. These concern the killing of three men and a woman by security forces in Gujarat in 2004, and the 2008 bomb blasts in Malegaon allegedly organised by Hindu terrorists, which killed 37 people and injured 125. There are murky claims and counter-claims being made in both cases involving interference by government functionaries in a manner that scarcely raises confidence about the veracity and integrity of the investigative and legal processes.

The first concerns a case filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against the Ahmedabad police crime branch for allegedly conducting a staged killing of four supposedly Lashkar-e-Toiba (let) operatives, who it was believed were planning to assassinate then chief minister Narendra Modi. There are two parts to this controversy: first, whether the encounter was staged and, second, whether the lone woman involved, Ishrat Jahan, was an let operative or not. On the first point, a lower court ruled in favour of a fake encounter, a decision the state government challenged in the Gujarat High Court, where it is being heard. It is on Ishrat Jahan's innocence, a point on which her family insists, that the current controversy revolves (though it is not a legal issue). Those who claim she was an let operative place credence on the testimony by David Headley, an accused in the 26/11 Mumbai massacre, to the effect that he had heard references to her from other let operatives. The fact that Mr Headley is on a plea bargain was not ignored; the National Investigation Agency (NIA) dismissed it as hearsay. Then earlier this year, former Home Secretary Gopal Pillai told a news channel that then Home Minister P Chidambaram had altered a government affidavit to say that Ishrat Jahan was not an let operative (just three years ago, Mr Pillai had supported this position, saying there was no evidence to prove she had let links). Mr Chidambaram's explanation is that the original affidavit had been released without his approval, and that the Gujarat government itself had drawn attention to inconsistencies between it and a magistrate's report on the encounter. Now, the file with the affidavits has mysteriously disappeared. Meanwhile, the police officers accused in the case are all scot-free - one is even considering standing for elections.

The blasts in Malegaon were traced to a Hindu right-wing group. Last year, the special public prosecutor in the case, Rohini Salian, told The Indian Express that she had been asked by a senior NIA officer to go "soft" on the case in 2014, and was later replaced. Now comes yet another "discovery" by the NIA of a "secret letter" from one of the key accused, Srikant Purohit, apparently warning the army of right-wing terror groups in which he implicates all of the accused. Mr Purohit has long claimed he was an army intelligence operative who had infiltrated Hindu and Islamic terrorist groups as part of his job. The problem with these bizarre developments, which look like political interventions, is that they compromise the legitimacy of investigations by agencies that are meant to be independent. Such irregularities sustain lingering doubts on similar investigations of other cases and underline the importance of people in power maintaining an arm's-length distance from the judicial and investigative processes.

Convene

› to ​bring together a ​group of ​people for a ​meeting, or to ​meet for a ​meeting:

The ​prime ​minister convened (a ​meeting of) his ​cabinet to ​discuss the ​matter.

Murky adjective (DARK/DIRTY)

› ​dark and ​dirty or ​difficult to ​see through:

The ​river was ​brown and murky after the ​storm.

Veracity

› the ​quality of being ​true, ​honest, or ​accurate:

Doubts were ​cast on the veracity of her ​alibi.

Credence

› the ​belief that something is ​true:

I'm not ​prepared to give credence to ​anonymous ​complaints.

Hearsay

› ​information that you have ​heard but do not ​know to be ​true:

The ​evidence against them is all hearsay.

Infiltrate

› to ​secretly ​become ​part of a ​group in ​order to get ​information or to ​influence the way that ​group ​thinks or ​behaves:

A ​journalist ​managed to infiltrate the ​powerful ​drug ​cartel.

› to ​move ​slowly into a ​substance, ​place, ​system, or ​organization:

At about this ​time the new ​ideas about "​corporate ​management" had ​begun to infiltrate (into) ​local ​government.

Linger

> to take a ​long ​time to ​leave or ​disappear:

After the ​play had ​finished, we lingered for a while in the ​bar ​hoping to ​catch ​sight of the ​actors.

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