hai frds iam Bollepalli anu
iam providing the hindu editorial page and vocabulary
happy reading................
happy reading................
TOPIC: 1:Time to debate Governors’
powers.
By imposing President’s rule in
Arunachal Pradesh even before a mandatory floor test could establish conclusively that the Congress government of Nabam Tuki had
lost its majority, the Central government acted prematurely.
Indeed, the Supreme Court in seeking
reasons for the decision, and observing that “the matter is too serious”,
underscored what President Pranab Mukherjee had said in his new year’s message
to Governors: they must play, he said, their assigned
role while respecting the distinct
authority and responsibility vested in
the executive, the judiciary and the legislature, and help “create a harmonious relationship
between the Centre and the States”. When the Centre sought
his assent for President’s Rule in
Arunachal Pradesh, Mr. Mukherjee cautioned
against a hasty decision — indeed, one that runs counter to Prime Minister
Narendra Modi’s promise of cooperative federalism.
But the government, projecting it as a ‘textbook case’ for the use of Article
356, had its way. On Monday, the Supreme Court accepted that a Governor is not
answerable to the courts for the exercise of the powers of his office. But
simultaneously it ordered the Centre to release all documents — including
personal letters of the Chief Minister and of his ministerial colleagues — to
enable Mr. Tuki to prepare a defence against the contents of Governor J.P.
Rajkhowa’s report that accuses him of instigating fellow Nyishis and funding public
protests to seek the latter’s exit. The
Governor also claimed that he had been abused,
threatened and nearly assaulted by
Mr. Tuki’s Ministers, who joined protestors and even sacrificed a mithun outside the
Raj Bhavan.
However, this is not the first case of a clash
between a Governor and the Chief Minister of a State in the past year. The
Governors of Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Assam — Tathagata Roy, Ram
Naik, Keshari Nath Tripathi and P.B. Acharya, respectively — have been on a collision course with the Chief Ministers of the
States. Mr. Naik clashed with Chief
Minister Akhilesh Yadav’s choice of Lokayukta, and sat
over the State’s nominations for five members to the Legislative
Council. In Assam, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi accused Mr. Acharya of
“interfering” in the political affairs of the State. Mr. Acharya also hit the
headlines for his controversial “Hindustan is for Hindus” comment. Mr. Roy attracted adverse attention when he said publicly: “Whatever
gave you the notion that I am secular? I am Hindu.” The imposition of
President’s Rule in Arunachal Pradesh is, in a sense, in keeping with the
record of governments of all hues to use pliant Governors to dismiss opposition-run State
governments. However, at present there is another concern: many Governors are
being seen as active agents working to implement the Sangh Parivar’s Hindutva agenda. Later this month, when the President hosts the annual Governors’ conference, it would
be in order to have a deeper discussion on the constitutional proprieties that
should guide a Governor’s word and deed.
VOCABULARY:
1.mandatory : required by law or mandate; compulsory.
2.conclusively : putting an end to debate or question especially by reason of
irrefutability.
3.prematurely : before the due time; ahead of time.
4.seeking : attempt or desire to obtain or achieve
(something).
5.assigned : allocate (a job or duty).
6.distinct : recognizably different in nature from
something else of a similar type.
7.vested : confer or bestow (power, authority,
property, etc.) on someone.
8.legislature : a deliberative body of persons, usually
elective, who are empowered to make, change, or repeal the laws of a country or
state.
9.harmonious : free from disagreement or dissent.
10.sought : To try to locate or discover; search for:
11.cautioned : say something as a warning.
12.hasty : done with excessive speed or urgency;
hurried.
13.indeed : used to introduce a further and
stronger or more surprising point.
14.federalism : the federal principle or system of government.
15.accuses : charge (someone) with an offence or crime.
16.instigating : bring about or initiate (an action or event).
17.latter’s : occurring or situated nearer to the end of
something than to the beginning.
18.abused : use (something) to bad effect or for a bad
purpose; misuse.
19.threatened : cause (someone or something) to be vulnerable
or at risk; endanger.
20.assaulted : make a physical attack on.
21.mithun : Different Religion, different Caste, different
Rashi, different Nakshatra, Find name links with .
22.collision : an instance of one moving object or person
striking violently against another.
23.clashed : meet and come into violent conflict.
24.controversial : giving rise or likely to give rise to
controversy or public disagreement.
25.adverse : preventing success or development; harmful; unfavourable.
26.hues : character or aspect.
27.pliant : easily influenced or directed; yielding.
28.agenda : a list of items to be discussed at a formal
meeting.
29.hosts : a person who receives or entertains other
people as guests.
30.deed : an action that is performed intentionally or
consciously.
TOPIC:2:Coming
to grips with female foeticide
Union Minister for Women and Child
Development Maneka Gandhi’s clarifications over her remarks on the existing ban on
sex-selective abortions should put the focus back on the real issues. There are
three aspects to the proposal that she
put forth at a conference in Jaipur: establish the sex of the foetus when a pregnancy is detected; tell the
mother about it and register the fact in public records; and ensure that
deliveries happen only in institutions and not at home. This twin strategy of tracking sex-determined foetuses and requiring
institutional deliveries is expected to ensure that female babies are not aborted, or killed at birth. While this idea might
seem persuasive, like many technological
fixes it betrays a worrying lack of awareness of social realities. The very attempt to
record the status of the foetus involves the obvious
risk of exposing women to undue
psychological and social pressure to abort female foetuses. Two, such an intrusion by the state into a woman’s
personal-biological space is unwelcome, even Orwellian.
That such suggestions are being floated —
no matter how quickly they are withdrawn in the face of criticism — is an indication
of India’s persisting inability to address the problem of female foeticide, and
the continuum of social ills that this
practice reflects.
At the moment, there are few incentives for medical technicians, apart from
public interest, to withhold information from families on the gender of the
foetus. And when such violations have
come to light, prosecution has been indifferent. Maharashtra is believed to
have come down severely on errant doctors
and clinics, which is significant given the likely impact the State’s large
population could have on child sex ratios. The record of Punjab and Haryana,
with a high prevalence of sex-selective
abortions, also points to a modicum of enforcement. But there is a long way to go. After
all, where traditional cultural norms dictate
a strong preference for boys, recourse to medical technologies could well reinforce socially detrimental
personal choices. Clearly, the emphasis ought to be on the reversal of India’s adverse sex ratio among children in the 0-6 year
age group. On a national average, the number of girls for every 1,000 boys in
this segment of the population dipped to 918 in the 2011 decennial population Census, with more disturbing
regional variations. The corresponding figures were 927 and 933 in 1991 and
2001, respectively. Notably, Ms. Gandhi’s six-time constituency of Pilibhit in
Uttar Pradesh has seen a sharp drop in the child sex ratio in the 2001-2011
inter-Census period. At 940, the figure was above the national average in 2001,
but declined dramatically to 912 in the
last Census. Pilibhit could easily set an example for the whole country, if
only by a scrupulous compliance with the
spirit of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act,
under which any disclosure of the foetal status is a punishable offence.
VOCABULARY:
1.existing : in
existence or operation at the current time.
2.aspects
: a particular part
or feature of something.
3.forth :
out and away from a
starting point.
4.conference : a formal
meeting of people with a shared interest, typically one that takes place over
several days.
5.foetus
: bringing forth of
young, hence that which is born, offspring, young still in the womb.
6.tracking
: the maintenance
of a constant difference in frequency between two or more connected circuits or
components.
7.aborted
: carry out or
undergo the abortion of (a fetus).
8.persuasive: good at persuading someone to do or believe
something through reasoning or the use of temptation.
9.betrays
: expose (one's
country, a group, or a person) to danger by treacherously giving information to
an enemy.
10.awareness : concern about and well-informed
interest in a particular situation or development.
11.obvious
:easily perceived
or understood; clear, self-evident, or apparent.
12.undue : unwarranted or inappropriate because excessive
or disproportionate.
13.Orwellian : An
Animated Lesson About the Use ... monolithic, implacable, deliberately stripped
of .
14.floated
: rest or move on
or near the surface of a liquid without sinking.
15.continuum : continuous sequence in which adjacent elements
are not perceptibly different from each other, but the extremes are quite
distinct.
16.incentives : a thing that motivates or encourages someone to
do something.
17.violations
: the action of violating someone or something.
18.errant : erring or straying from the accepted course or
standards.
19.prevalence : he fact
or condition of being prevalent; commonness.
20.modicum : a small quantity of a particular thing,
especially something desirable or valuable.
21.enforcement : the act of compelling observance
of or compliance with a law, rule, or obligation.
22.dictate : say or read aloud (words to be typed, written
down, or recorded on tape).
23.detrimental : tending to cause harm.
24.emphasis
: special
importance, value, or prominence given to something.
25.ought
: used to indicate
duty or correctness, typically when criticizing someone's actions.
26.decennial
: lasting for or relating to a period of ten years.
27.declined : (typically of something regarded as good) become
smaller, fewer, or less; decrease.
28.scrupulous : (of a person or process) diligent, thorough,
and extremely attentive to details.
29.compliance : the action or fact of complying with a wish or
command.
30.
disclosure : the action of making new or secret
information known.
