Karmany evadhikaras te ma phaleshu kadachana. In a standard translation: “You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action.”
The line is verse 47 of the second chapter of the Bhagavad Gita. Krishna speaks it to Arjuna on the battlefield.
In September 2020 Parliament passed three farm laws. Farmers protested for about a year. On November 19, 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced: “We have decided to repeal the three farm laws.”
“I apologise for not being able to explain to some farmers what we wanted to do through the agriculture laws,” he said. Parliament passed the repeal bill on November 29, 2021, without debate.
In January 2012 the Supreme Court ruled that Vodafone did not owe Indian tax on its purchase of a foreign company that held Indian assets. Months later, the Finance Act of 2012 changed the income tax law back to 1961, so that such deals were taxable after all.
In August 2021 a new law withdrew that retrospective effect. Companies had to drop their cases to receive refunds, without interest.
In Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena and the BJP campaigned on a promise to push Enron’s Dabhol power project “into the Arabian Sea.” After winning the 1995 state election, their government halted construction on August 3, 1995.
In 1996 the state electricity board and Enron renegotiated the contract. Enron cut its power costs by 20 percent, and the board agreed to buy more electricity.
In 1967 Gaya Lal, a member of the Haryana assembly, changed his party three times. The Tribune says it happened in a single day. Other accounts speak of a few days or a fortnight. His name gave India a phrase for politicians who switch sides: Aaya Ram Gaya Ram. Ram came, Ram went.
In 1985 Parliament added the anti-defection law to the Constitution as its Tenth Schedule.
Tata Motors had chosen Singur in West Bengal for its Nano factory, and building had begun. After months of protests over the land, Ratan Tata announced on October 3, 2008, that the project would leave the state.
Narendra Modi, then chief minister of Gujarat, sent him a one-word text message: “Welcome.” The factory was built at Sanand, Gujarat, and opened in 2010.
The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act of 2016 set up state authorities to hold builders to their delivery dates. Ten years later, a homebuyers’ association, FPCE, estimated that 27.6 lakh families still had money stuck in delayed projects, about 12.44 lakh crore rupees.
FPCE said: “RERA has not failed as a statute. Its enforcement has.”
On December 13, 2018, K. Chandrasekhar Rao was sworn in as chief minister of Telangana at 1:25 in the afternoon. Priests of the Yadadri Lakshminarasimha Swamy temple had fixed the time. “The auspicious period will continue for another one-and-a-half hour,” the head priest said.
Earlier that year Rao had dissolved the state assembly at a time given by priests of the Sringeri Mutt.
The Constitution of India came into force on January 26, 1950. On September 28, 2023, the Ministry of Law and Justice notified the Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act, which provides for reserving seats for women in the Lok Sabha and the state assemblies.
It was the 106th amendment in 73 years.