“I AM afraid I cannot do anything we better all go home,” Vice-President, Hamid Ansari ended the midnight drama as he adjourned the Rajya Sabha sine-die after a ruckus. Television coverage showed that while the whole country was glue to their TV sets watching closely the proceedings, MPs keeping up to their reputation, exchanged boos, accusations, created uproar and even tore papers as Lokpal Bill, that was not even put to vote in an 11-hour long debated failed to pass on the last day of the Winter session.

While the opposition accused the Congress party of choreographing the whole event, it also underlined that Congress failed miserably to show its strength in the House to the extent that even its allies like Trinamool seemed committed to vote against the bill.

An RJD MP Rajneeti Prasad, keeping up to his name (Rajneeti or politics) tore a copy of Lokpal bill and threw it into the well of the House. Even Rajya Sabha was accused of getting into a ‘hopeless minority’ and running away from Parliament.

The opposition BJP was all set to corner the embarrassed Congress party by pressuring Chairman Ansari to give a clear reply whether the House will continue after midnight. It wanted to finish the business on the bill with clear results. On the other hand, Congress party huddled together during the 15-minute adjournment period to discuss the strategy to minimise the embarrassment.

Several parties termed it as a sad day for democracy, as the government managed to avoid the vote on the bill whose fate hangs in balance. In a house of 243 members, 122 members were set to oppose the government’s bill and around 109 for the bill.

It was a defeat that was writ on the face of Congress party that had blamed the opposition in Lok Sabha for its opposition to confer the bill a constitutional status. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had termed it sad day for democracy in Lok Sabha but surprisingly, he along with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, didn’t even bother to speak in Rajya Sabha. Most probably, they knew the fate of the bill and were watching the ‘choreographed’ drama.