Tareekh pe tareekh: date after date. In Rajkumar Santoshi’s film Damini (1993), the lawyer Govind, played by Sunny Deol, faces the judge in court. “Tareekh pe tareekh, tareekh pe tareekh, tareekh pe tareekh milti rahi hai, my lord, lekin insaaf nahin mila.” Date after date has been given, my lord, but no justice.
In-Principle Approval
On August 19, 2015, the Reserve Bank of India gave “in-principle” approval to eleven applicants for payments bank licenses, among them the Department of Posts, Reliance Industries and Vodafone m-pesa. The approval was valid for 18 months.
In that time the applicants had to meet the bank’s conditions. Only then would the bank “consider granting to them a licence.” The release added: “Until a regular licence is issued, the applicants cannot undertake any banking business.”
Thirty Groups Dissolved
On May 31, 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the abolition of 21 Groups of Ministers and 9 Empowered Groups of Ministers. The Cabinet confirmed the decision on June 18.
The Prime Minister’s Office said the step “would expedite the process of decision making and usher in greater accountability in the system.” The pending issues went back to the ministries and departments, with help from the Cabinet Secretariat and the Prime Minister’s Office.
Three Months
On January 21, 2020, the Supreme Court decided the case of Keisham Meghachandra Singh against the Speaker of the Manipur assembly. Petitions to disqualify a legislator who had changed sides after the 2017 election lay before the Speaker without a decision.
The court set a limit. “Absent exceptional circumstances for which there is good reason, a period of three months from the date on which the petition is filed is the outer limit,” it held. It gave the Speaker four weeks to decide.
A Decision Not to Decide
Outlook magazine reported a remark by Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao to an interviewer: “The decision not to take a decision is itself a decision.” The magazine said only that he had spoken to the interviewer “recently,” without a name.
A column in the National Herald quotes Rao in other words: “To not take action is itself an action.”
Putting Off
Taal-matol: putting off. The Rekhta dictionary defines it as postponing a task instead of completing it, and also as the excuse made in order to postpone.
Aaj kal karna: to say today, tomorrow. Rekhta gives the same meaning, to put off, and adds a second one: to put someone off with a false promise.
Morality Is Subtle
In the Sabha Parva of the Mahabharata, Draupadi asks the assembly whether Yudhishthira could stake her after he had already lost himself. Bhishma replies. “O blessed one, morality is subtle,” he says, in the Ganguli translation. “I therefore am unable to duly decide this point that thou hast put.”
He sets out the arguments on each side. Then he says it again: “Therefore, I can not decide this point.”
The Slip of Paper
On December 12, 2023, the BJP’s newly elected legislators in Rajasthan met to choose the Chief Minister. Their choice was Bhajan Lal Sharma, a first-time member of the assembly. His name was proposed by the former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje.
According to Newslaundry, the party’s observer, Union minister Rajnath Singh, had handed Raje a slip of paper that allegedly carried the new Chief Minister’s name.
Authorised to Decide
On May 14, 2023, the 136 newly elected Congress members of the Karnataka assembly met to choose a chief minister. Two leaders wanted the post. The members “unanimously passed a resolution to authorise All India Congress Committee president Mallikarjun Kharge to choose the new leader of the party.”
In Rajasthan in December 2018 the Congress members had passed a single-line resolution leaving the choice to Rahul Gandhi.
Sochte Hain
In his book The Power of Saying No, the author Ashutosh Garg writes that in India subordinates “may find it particularly difficult to say no to superiors.” In collectivist cultures, he adds, “saying no directly is often avoided to preserve harmony and maintain relationships.”
Instead of refusing, he writes, an Indian may say sochte hain, “we will think about it.” Governance Now published an excerpt in February 2026.