The Indian Express and Financial Express quoted a go-by-rule official, Ashok Khema (IAS, Haryana, often transferred for doing his duty) as saying there are honest politicians and he can name them off the hat. That is a mixed up idiom.
Probably he intended to say off the cuff, meaning straight away, without much effort, impromptu, extemporaneously. But yes, there is something one does by pulling something out of the hat, as if magically. Spring a surprise, as it were.
We may as well recall another expression: shooting from the hip when something is said quickly, instantaneously, as if you are pulling the gun from the holster at the hip and shoot, quickly.
Probably he intended to say off the cuff, meaning straight away, without much effort, impromptu, extemporaneously. But yes, there is something one does by pulling something out of the hat, as if magically. Spring a surprise, as it were.
We may as well recall another expression: shooting from the hip when something is said quickly, instantaneously, as if you are pulling the gun from the holster at the hip and shoot, quickly.
