eng
competition

Text Practice Mode

Aadarsh institute Rajeev Kumar 7677760242

created Jan 25th 2022, 07:01 by rajeevkumar


0


Rating

969 words
1 completed
00:00
The stereotypical image of politicians in India in popular culture is mostly unflattering, but it is also somewhat unfair. Politics as a vocation is not an easy one and no one receives more scrutiny than legislators and politicians in public life and despite there being several things to improve upon, electoral democracy in India allows for a fair amount of accountability by empowering the voter to evaluate those contesting to represent them. Yet, if there is one act that reminds citizens of the tendencies of politicians, it is that of switching sides on the eve of fresh elections in a State. No State is spared of this act, and hardly any party escapes defections. In a world where principles and ideologies determine party affiliation, switching parties at the last minute would be a rare anomaly for there would have been ample time for disgruntled party men to rethink the bandwagon they had hitched themselves to. But in the real world, elections bring in hard calculations politicians who sense a whiff of change in the mood of the electorate are ready to take the risk to switch. These occurrences are more pronounced when parties select their legislators on considerations such as caste/community identity but they are no longer rare events even in States where the polity features a clear ideological divide, for instance, Kerala. But there are also occurrences  dime a dozen - when the electorate does not punish political opportunists and considerations other than legislative ability alone determine the electoral fortunes of contestants. In the case of Goa, a State with a small Assembly and which has a history of party hopping, the spurt of defections of late should not come as a surprise. But the fact that electoral contestation in an already fractious polity with a high number of competitive political parties has now increased with the Trinamool Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party in the fray, has exacerbated matters by widening the choices for the political opportunist. In Uttar Pradesh, even considering the fact that such defections are routine, the spurt of MLAs switching sides from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to the Samajwadi Party (SP) should worry the ruling party, more so if the party hoppers are from the Other Backward Classes who had been diligently wooed and represented in the BJP to get an edge over the Mandal parties. The BJP could still take consolation in the fact that last minute defections in West Bengal had little effect on the ruling Trinamool in the election last year but unlike in the eastern State, the politics of identity is more salient in Uttar Pradesh. This indicates that the political contest in a State where the ruling coalition secured 51.2% of the votes and led in 284 of the 403 Assembly segments in the State in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, is getting to be a close call with the SP putting up a spirited fight. At the very least, the aura of invincibility that the BJP had since 2014 is markedly absent. Although the Opposition camp is still divided, the erosion in the BJP.
A few days after he expectedly won his fifth World chess championship in a row, Magnus Carlsen suggested he might abdicate his crown - unless Alireza Firouzja qualifies as his challenger for the next World title. The Norwegian genius spoke of how the recent performances of the 18 year old Iran born French player motivated him. The teenager is now the frontrunner to be Carlsens rival for next years World title match. A few years later, an Indian could be facing the World champion across the chessboard in a title match, for the first time since 2014. It may be no exaggeration to say that India currently possesses the world’s most exciting group of chess prodigies. Players such as Arjun Erigaisi (18), Nihal Sarin (17), R. Praggnanandhaa (16), D. Gukesh (15) and Raunak Sadhwani (16) are capable of breaking into the elite of world chess. And there is much promise outside that bunch too, like Bharath Subramaniyam, who became Indias73rd Grandmaster on Sunday, at the age of 14. The list of the world’s top juniors is a reasonable indicator of the future stars. In the latest list released by FIDE, five of the top 13 are Indians. Among the seniors, Viswanathan Anand continues to
be the highest ranked Indian. The five time World champion, who singlehandedly revolutionised chess in the country, is the World No. 16. It is no mean feat considering Anand is 52 and keeping him company are six other Indians in the top 100.
Among countries, India is ranked fifth. In the women's list, Koneru Humpy is ranked third and Dronavalli Harika eleventh. Not many exceptional talents are coming through from among the junior girls, though. That is one deficiency the All India Chess Federation could look into. The federation also needs to do all it can to ensure that Indian chess retains its momentum. Never has it seen so many gifted youngsters making rapid strides on the global stage at the same time. That they are being trained, among others, by Anand is one of the most positive developments in Indian chess in recent times. Conducting a few toptier tournaments that could pit India’s best against the world's strongest, in addition to the large number of open events that are already there, is something the administrators have to do on a regular basis. At present, there is only one; and that too, thanks to Tata Steel. Chess has recently become more mainstream in India, and the huge increase in popularity of live streams of chess events suggests even better days are ahead. If there is a time to tap the
huge potential of the game in the country where it originated 15 centuries ago, it is now.
Young knights

saving score / loading statistics ...