WORD POWER
Elections in the air
Prerana Trehan

WITH the country slated to go to the polls next month, the political parties’ spin doctors are working overtime. Even though the Vajpayee Government insists that the India Shining campaign is an attempt to showcase the country’s achievements, the Opposition claims that the government has a hidden agenda behind the campaign. The ruling party has also been at the receiving end of criticism from certain voices in the media for what is termed as its personal attack against the leader of the Opposition, Sonia Gandhi.

Party workers who hope to get a nomination from their parties make sure that they are at the beck and call of their political masters. The less lucky workers have more or less been left to their own devices by their parties and do not harbour any hopes of securing nominations. Almost each party also has its fall guy who is made to carry the can for the party’s mistakes.

The Election Commission lays down the law regarding how much each party can spend on campaigning, but the parties have become a law unto themselves and do not think twice before taking the law into their own hands and bending the rules to suit their convenience. The Commission should not let these parties off the hook.

Vote in a general election.

Someone whose job is to persuade others to consider a situation, especially a political one, in a way that is beneficial to the people they work for. This is usually done by packaging the truth in a way that makes it attractive.

The motive for doing something which you hide by pretending that you have a different reason.

Suffered from/ were the target of (the other person’s anger, criticism etc).

Do everything that someone tells you to do, whenever they tell you to do it.

Let someone do what they are able to without helping them or trying to control them.

Someone who is blamed for another person’s mistakes or crime. A scapegoat.

Take the blame or responsibility for something that is wrong or has not succeeded.

Spell out the ground rules clearly.

Ignore the law.

Flouting the law.

Disobeying the rules or laws or allowing someone else to do the same.

Allow to escape blame where it is due.

Rewrite the following sentences substituting the italicised parts with an idiom:

Companies which pollute the environment should not be allowed to disobey the law.

Teenagers don’t always like being told what to do. They would much rather be allowed to make their own decisions about how to act.

Now that the Board exams have begun, many parents are very firm about how much TV the children can watch.

During the Raj, Indian servants of British masters had to do whatever the British wanted, whenever they wanted it.

We all suspect that our branch manager had a reason he is not divulging for transferring the accounts manager to another branch.

The government’s recent decision to cut the IIMs’ fee came in for a lot of criticism in the press.

The phrase melting pot is often used to describe places like the USA where people of different races, countries or social classes come to live together. In spite of the obvious allusion, the phrase does not originate from cookery, but rather from the practice of using a crucible to melt pieces of metal, often scrap. The molten substance thus made is then poured into a mould for making something new.

(Reference: Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms and A Concise Dictionary of Phrase and Fable)