Hindi English Translation || Editorial || Obstacle race: On Special Intensive Revision exercise

Obstacle race: On Special Intensive Revision exercise

The SIR is threatening (खतरे में डालना, जोखिम में डालना) universal adult franchise (सार्वभौमिक वयस्क मताधिकार)

On Gandhiji’s birth anniversary (commemoration, observance, remembrance, celebration), many Opposition parties, student groups and other citizens took to the streets in Delhi, Mumbai and elsewhere (अन्यत्र) demanding (माँग करना) the resignation (इस्तीफा, पदत्याग) of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) (मुख्य निर्वाचन आयुक्त) Gyanesh Kumar. Their grievance (शिकायत, असंतोष) was that Mr. Kumar has presided over (to be in charge of a situation, process, or event; manage, head, direct, supervise) a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) (विशेष गहन पुनरीक्षण) exercise meant (इरादा रखना, उद्देश्य रखना) to “clean (to remove unwanted, incorrect, or duplicate entries from a system or record; purge, clear, rectify, correct)” the electoral rolls (मतदाता सूची, निर्वाचक नामावली), but in practice (व्यवहार में, वास्तव में) has become an exercise in the serial (लगातार होने वाला, क्रमिक) disenfranchisement (the state of being deprived of a right or privilege, especially the right to vote; deprivation of the right to vote, disqualification, marginalization, exclusion) of lakhs of Indian citizens. The BJP-led Union and State governments reacted predictably (expectedly, unsurprisingly, inevitably, certainly), refusing permission (consent or authorization to do something; authorization, consent, approval, clearance) for the protest and imposing (to force a rule, law, or order to be accepted or put into effect; enforce, apply, inflict) prohibitory orders (an official legal directive or command restricting the assembly of people to maintain public peace and order; restrictive directive, ban, injunction, interdict). In Delhi, the government shut down the Internet in the Jantar Mantar area, closed 11 Metro stations and detained (to keep someone in official custody, typically for questioning about a crime or to prevent a protest; hold, confine, arrest, restrain) over 700 protesters (demonstrator, agitator, dissenter, objector). In Mumbai, the police denied permission for the gathering (an assembly or meeting of people for a specific purpose; assembly, meeting, rally, congregation) at Shivaji Park, but the protesters turned up anyway (regardless, nevertheless, nonetheless, in any case). The reason for the anger (outrage, fury, wrath, resentment) is plain (easy to see, understand, or recognize; clear, obvious, evident, apparent). Emboldened (to give someone the courage or confidence to do something or to behave in a certain way; encourage, hearten, strengthen, fortify) by a deferential (showing respect and a willingness to agree with or yield to someone else’s authority or opinion; respectful, submissive, compliant, obedient) Supreme Court verdict (judgment, ruling, decision) upholding (maintain, sustain, validate, endorse) the SIR’s constitutional (relating to or in accordance with the constitution of a state or nation; legal, statutory, lawful, legitimate) validity (legitimacy, legality, authenticity, soundness), the Election Commission of India (ECI) (A permanent, autonomous constitutional body established on 25 January 1950 under Article 324 of the Constitution to administer and ensure free and fair elections to the Parliament, State Legislatures, and the offices of the President and Vice-President) has taken the flawed (defective, faulty, imperfect, erroneous) method that it first adopted (implement, embrace, utilize, apply) in Bihar, added a new exclusion (omission, elimination, rejection, barring) criterion (standard, measure, benchmark, parameter) called “logical discrepancies (a lack of compatibility or similarity between logical facts or data points; inconsistency, contradiction, mismatch, divergence)” that it first implemented (execute, apply, carry out, enforce) in West Bengal, and extended (broaden, expand, widen, spread) it from State to Union Territory (UT). The enumeration (the process of compiling a complete and detailed list or counting of items, such as voters; listing, counting, tallying, cataloguing) process puts the onus on electors to prove their eligibility (qualification, suitability, entitlement, acceptability), with many deleted first and verified later. Getting back onto the rolls after being struck off the draft (a preliminary version of a document, such as an electoral roll, before it is finalized; preliminary version, rough outline, unfinalized list, blueprint) is onerous (burdensome, arduous, heavy, demanding), while dubious (suspect, questionable, suspicious, untrustworthy) mass requests (a large number of formal appeals or applications made simultaneously by a group or entity; bulk application) for deletion are easy to file (submit, lodge, register, present) and quick to process. Nearly (almost, approximately, practically, virtually) 13.4 crore electors have been removed from the draft rolls (a preliminary version of the electoral register that is subject to modification or correction; preliminary register, initial list, provisional roll, unfinalized list) across 30 States and UTs — about 14% of the electorate (all the people in a country or area who are entitled to vote in an election; voting public, voters, constituents, voting population) before the revision. Each phase (stage, period, step, chapter) has deleted more than the last: 8.3% in Bihar, 12.9% across the 12 States and UTs of Phase 2, and 17% in Phase 3.

The ECI has said that deleted electors can return during the claims phase (a specific period designated during an electoral revision process where citizens can file applications for inclusion or corrections in the voter list; objection period, application stage, verification window, representation time), but only as fresh applicants (a person who makes a formal request for something, such as inclusion in an electoral roll; candidate, claimant, petitioner, seeker) provided (if, assuming that, on condition that, as long as) they find that they have been struck off. The ECI’s own members objected (oppose, protest against, argue against, take exception to) to the plainly (clearly, obviously, evidently, undeniably) illegal changes to procedure. Form 6 (An official application form provided by the Election Commission of India used for the registration of new voters or inclusion of names in the electoral roll) was altered without any amendment (a minor change, alteration, modification, revision) to the rules, asking applicants whether they, or their parents or grandparents, appeared on the roll of the last SIR. In West Bengal, 16.1 lakh requests were filed to remove electors whom judicial officers (a person legally empowered to preside over a court or adjudicatory proceeding; judge, magistrate, justice, adjudicator) had already cleared. A centralised (brought under the control of a central or single authority; unified, consolidated, concentrated, integrated) roll database (a structured set of data held in a computer; repository, archive, registry, directory) in New Delhi helped make this possible. The ECI has now asked BLOs to restore (to bring back or re-establish something; reinstate, return, re-establish, put back) deleted voters to the rolls; it is an implicit (implied, indirect, unspoken, understood) admission (confession, acknowledgment, acceptance, concession) that the process disenfranchised (to deprive someone of a right or privilege, particularly the right to vote; deprive of the vote, disqualify, marginalize, silence) many. The semi-corrective (partially remedial, somewhat restorative, half-rectifying, partially amending) steps do not absolve (to declare someone free from guilt, blame, or responsibility; exonerate, clear, acquit, vindicate) the two Election Commissioners (A constitutional authority appointed under Article 324 to the Election Commission of India, responsible alongside the Chief Election Commissioner for the administration of Union and State election processes). As majority in the ECI, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi could have overruled (reject, overturn, override, reverse, cancel) the CEC. The exercise (task, activity, operation, undertaking), as it is being carried out now, is an obstacle not only to universal adult franchise but also to electoral democracy (a system of government in which citizens periodically elect their representatives through free, fair, and competitive elections; representative government, democratic system, parliamentary democracy, elected governance) itself.

Courtesy: The Hindu

Important Word List With Meaning

1.obstacle (noun)

Hindi Meaning - बाधा, रुकावट
English Meaning - barrier, hurdle, impediment, block, hindrance.

2.race (noun)

Hindi Meaning - प्रतिस्पर्धा, संघर्ष
English Meaning - a situation of competitive effort, challenge, or struggle; contest, competition, challenge, pursuit.

3.Special Intensive Revision (SIR) (noun)

Hindi Meaning - विशेष गहन पुनरीक्षण
English Meaning - an official process undertaken by the Election Commission of India (ECI) to comprehensively update and revise electoral rolls, specifically targeting the inclusion of newly eligible voters, removal of ineligible names, and correction of existing details before elections.

4.threaten (verb)

Hindi Meaning - खतरे में डालना, जोखिम में डालना
English Meaning - endanger, jeopardize, imperil, put at risk.

5.universal adult franchise (noun)

Hindi Meaning - सार्वभौमिक वयस्क मताधिकार
English Meaning - the constitutional principle under Article 326 of the Constitution of India that elections to the House of the People (Lok Sabha) and the Legislative Assemblies of States (Vidhan Sabhas) are conducted on the basis of adult suffrage, entitling Indian citizens aged 18 years and above to be registered as voters, subject to constitutionally or legally prescribed disqualifications.

6.take to the streets (phrase)

Hindi Meaning - सड़कों पर उतरना
English Meaning - to gather in public areas in large numbers to protest or demonstrate against something; protest, demonstrate, rally, march.

7.elsewhere (adverb)

Hindi Meaning - अन्यत्र
English Meaning - in another place or other places; somewhere else, in another place, in other places, another location.

8.demand (verb)

Hindi Meaning - माँग करना
English Meaning - insist on, request, call for, appeal for.

9.resignation (noun)

Hindi Meaning - इस्तीफा, पदत्याग
English Meaning - withdrawal, departure, stepping down, relinquishment, abdication, quitting.

10.Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) (noun)

Hindi Meaning - मुख्य निर्वाचन आयुक्त
English Meaning - the head of the Election Commission of India, appointed by the President under Article 324. (Until the statutory procedure introduced in 2023, there was no constitutionally prescribed Selection Committee; appointments were made by the President on the advice of the Union executive. Following the Supreme Court’s Anoop Baranwal judgment of March 2, 2023, an interim selection committee comprising the Prime Minister, Leader of Opposition and Chief Justice of India was prescribed until Parliament enacted a law. The 2023 Act, effective from January 2, 2024, established the present Selection Committee comprising the Prime Minister, Leader of Opposition and a Union Cabinet Minister nominated by the Prime Minister.)

11.grievance (noun)

Hindi Meaning - शिकायत, असंतोष
English Meaning - complaint, objection, resentment, grudge.

12.mean (verb)

Hindi Meaning - इरादा रखना, उद्देश्य रखना
English Meaning - to intend to do something or to have a particular purpose in mind.

13.electoral roll (noun)

Hindi Meaning - मतदाता सूची, निर्वाचक नामावली
English Meaning - voter list, voting register, electoral register, voter roster.

14.in practice (phrase)

Hindi Meaning - व्यवहार में, वास्तव में
English Meaning - in reality, practically, fundamentally, essentially.

15.serial (adjective)

Hindi Meaning - लगातार होने वाला, क्रमिक
English Meaning - repeated, continuous, successive, sequential.

16.preside over (phrasal verb)

English Meaning - to be in charge of a situation, process, or event; manage, head, direct, supervise.

17.obstacle race (noun)

English Meaning - a situation or process fraught with numerous difficulties, challenges, or hindrances that must be overcome; hurdle, impediment, bottleneck, stumbling block. (fraught with means heavily filled with something unpleasant).

18.anniversary (noun)

English Meaning - commemoration, observance, remembrance, celebration.

19.clean (verb)

English Meaning - to remove unwanted, incorrect, or duplicate entries from a system or record; purge, clear, rectify, correct.

20.disenfranchisement (noun)

English Meaning - the state of being deprived of a right or privilege, especially the right to vote; deprivation of the right to vote, disqualification, marginalization, exclusion.

21.predictably (adverb)

English Meaning - expectedly, unsurprisingly, inevitably, certainly.

22.permission (noun)

English Meaning - consent or authorization to do something; authorization, consent, approval, clearance.

23.impose (verb)

English Meaning - to force a rule, law, or order to be accepted or put into effect; enforce, apply, inflict.

24.prohibitory order (noun)

English Meaning - an official legal directive or command restricting the assembly of people to maintain public peace and order; restrictive directive, ban, injunction, interdict.

25.detain (verb)

English Meaning - to keep someone in official custody, typically for questioning about a crime or to prevent a protest; hold, confine, arrest, restrain.

26.protester (noun)

English Meaning - demonstrator, agitator, dissenter, objector.

27.gathering (noun)

English Meaning - an assembly or meeting of people for a specific purpose; assembly, meeting, rally, congregation.

28.turn up (phrasal verb)

English Meaning - arrive, appear, attend, show up.

29.anyway (adverb)

English Meaning - regardless, nevertheless, nonetheless, in any case.

30.anger (noun)

English Meaning - outrage, fury, wrath, resentment.

31.plain (adjective)

English Meaning - easy to see, understand, or recognize; clear, obvious, evident, apparent.

32.embolden (verb)

English Meaning - to give someone the courage or confidence to do something or to behave in a certain way; encourage, hearten, strengthen, fortify.

33.deferential (adjective)

English Meaning - showing respect and a willingness to agree with or yield to someone else’s authority or opinion; respectful, submissive, compliant, obedient.

34.verdict (noun)

English Meaning - judgment, ruling, decision.

35.uphold (verb)

English Meaning - maintain, sustain, validate, endorse.

36.constitutional (adjective)

English Meaning - relating to or in accordance with the constitution of a state or nation; legal, statutory, lawful, legitimate.

37.validity (noun)

English Meaning - legitimacy, legality, authenticity, soundness.

38.Election Commission of India (ECI) (noun)

English Meaning - A permanent, autonomous constitutional body established on 25 January 1950 under Article 324 of the Constitution to administer and ensure free and fair elections to the Parliament, State Legislatures, and the offices of the President and Vice-President.

39.flawed (adjective)

English Meaning - defective, faulty, imperfect, erroneous.

40.adopt (verb)

English Meaning - implement, embrace, utilize, apply.

41.exclusion (noun)

English Meaning - omission, elimination, rejection, barring.

42.criterion (noun)

English Meaning - standard, measure, benchmark, parameter.

43.logical discrepancy (noun)

English Meaning - a lack of compatibility or similarity between logical facts or data points; inconsistency, contradiction, mismatch, divergence.

44.implement (verb)

English Meaning - execute, apply, carry out, enforce.

45.extend (verb)

English Meaning - broaden, expand, widen, spread.

46.enumeration (noun)

English Meaning - the process of compiling a complete and detailed list or counting of items, such as voters; listing, counting, tallying, cataloguing.

47.put the onus on (phrase)

English Meaning - to place the responsibility, burden, or duty of doing something onto a particular person or group; place the burden on, make responsible, assign liability, shift the blame to.

48.eligibility (noun)

English Meaning - qualification, suitability, entitlement, acceptability.

49.get back (phrasal verb)

English Meaning - to return to a previous state, position, or list, such as being re-added to an electoral roll; return, rejoin, be restored, recover.

50.strike off (phrasal verb)

English Meaning - to officially remove a name or item from a list, register, or record; remove, delete, erase, expunge.

51.draft (noun)

English Meaning - a preliminary version of a document, such as an electoral roll, before it is finalized; preliminary version, rough outline, unfinalized list, blueprint.

52.onerous (adjective)

English Meaning - burdensome, arduous, heavy, demanding.

53.dubious (adjective)

English Meaning - suspect, questionable, suspicious, untrustworthy.

54.mass request (noun)

English Meaning - a large number of formal appeals or applications made simultaneously by a group or entity; bulk application.

55.file (verb)

English Meaning - submit, lodge, register, present.

56.nearly (adverb)

English Meaning - almost, approximately, practically, virtually.

57.draft roll (noun)

English Meaning - a preliminary version of the electoral register that is subject to modification or correction; preliminary register, initial list, provisional roll, unfinalized list.

58.electorate (noun)

English Meaning - all the people in a country or area who are entitled to vote in an election; voting public, voters, constituents, voting population.

59.phase (noun)

English Meaning - stage, period, step, chapter.

60.claims phase (noun)

English Meaning - a specific period designated during an electoral revision process where citizens can file applications for inclusion or corrections in the voter list; objection period, application stage, verification window, representation time.

61.applicant (noun)

English Meaning - a person who makes a formal request for something, such as inclusion in an electoral roll; candidate, claimant, petitioner, seeker.

62.provided (conjunction)

English Meaning - if, assuming that, on condition that, as long as.

63.object (verb)

English Meaning - oppose, protest against, argue against, take exception to.

64.plainly (adverb)

English Meaning - clearly, obviously, evidently, undeniably.

65.Form 6 (proper noun)

English Meaning - An official application form provided by the Election Commission of India used for the registration of new voters or inclusion of names in the electoral roll.

66.amendment (noun)

English Meaning - a minor change, alteration, modification, revision.

67.judicial officer (noun)

English Meaning - a person legally empowered to preside over a court or adjudicatory proceeding; judge, magistrate, justice, adjudicator.

68.centralised (adjective)

English Meaning - brought under the control of a central or single authority; unified, consolidated, concentrated, integrated.

69.database (noun)

English Meaning - a structured set of data held in a computer; repository, archive, registry, directory.

70.make something possible (phrase)

English Meaning - to create the conditions or provide the means for something to happen or be achieved; enable, facilitate, permit, allow.

71.Booth Level Officer (BLO) (noun)

English Meaning - a local, grassroots-level representative of the Election Commission of India, typically a government or semi-government employee, responsible for maintaining and updating the electoral roll for a specific polling booth area.

72.Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) (noun)

English Meaning - a designated statutory authority under the Election Commission of India responsible for the preparation, revision, and maintenance of electoral rolls for a specific parliamentary or assembly constituency.

73.Booth Level Agent (BLA) (noun)

English Meaning - an official representative appointed by a recognized political party to assist the Booth Level Officer (BLO) in the accurate preparation and revision of the electoral roll at the polling booth level.

74.restore (verb)

English Meaning - to bring back or re-establish something; reinstate, return, re-establish, put back.

75.implicit (adjective)

English Meaning - implied, indirect, unspoken, understood.

76.admission (noun)

English Meaning - confession, acknowledgment, acceptance, concession.

77.disenfranchise (verb)

English Meaning - to deprive someone of a right or privilege, particularly the right to vote; deprive of the vote, disqualify, marginalize, silence.

78.semi-corrective (adjective)

English Meaning - partially remedial, somewhat restorative, half-rectifying, partially amending.

79.absolve (verb)

English Meaning - to declare someone free from guilt, blame, or responsibility; exonerate, clear, acquit, vindicate.

80.Election Commissioner (EC) (noun)

English Meaning - A constitutional authority appointed under Article 324 to the Election Commission of India, responsible alongside the Chief Election Commissioner for the administration of Union and State election processes.

81.overrule (verb)

English Meaning - reject, overturn, override, reverse, cancel.

82.exercise (noun)

English Meaning - task, activity, operation, undertaking.

83.carry out (phrasal verb)

English Meaning - perform, execute, accomplish, conduct.

84.electoral democracy (noun)

English Meaning - a system of government in which citizens periodically elect their representatives through free, fair, and competitive elections; representative government, democratic system, parliamentary democracy, elected governance.

85.democracy (noun)

English Meaning - a constitutional system of government in which political authority ultimately derives from the people and is exercised through elected representatives, with political equality, universal adult suffrage, and constitutional guarantees of justice, liberty, equality and fraternity; popular government, representative government, self-government, popular rule, self-rule.