How often you see the Treasury Benches in the Lok Sabha encourage and cheers a member of the Opposition? But that's what happened on Saturday when JD(U) MP, Mr Sharad Yadav, spoke during the Lokpal debate.

He was perturbed by the ‘Dubba' (TV). “ Anna Saheb se jayada dikat nahi hai, jitna is dubbe se hai ,” (I have no problem with Anna sahib but with TV channels), Mr Yadav said.

At one point, he asked Congress MPs why they participated in discussions on news channels where a ‘Bengali Babu Moshai' grills them.

Amidst desk-thumping, he also said that the country is not run by discussions on TV news channel but by the debates in Parliament.

At least three senior Cabinet ministers cheered him to continue his critique of the media. When he finished, Treasury members queued up to congratulate him.

Mr Lalu Prasad was furious to start with. “Is this Government not violating Parliamentary supremacy by discussing a matter that is before a Standing Committee?” he asked.

He was also very angry with Team Anna, especially Mr Arvind Kejriwal. He alleged that these people have put Anna's life in danger and now will blame the Parliament.

But slowly he came into his own when he said, “When Anna says even after 10 days of fasting, he can run for two kilometres, the doctors need to write a book on him.”

Earlier, the day had started on a sombre note when Mr Pranab Mukherjee set the tone.

Some ministers rushed to sit behind the front row to be seen on television.

Mr Mukherjee was at his best in convincing the house that the Government is serious.

But two senior ministers managed to take a small nap during his speech.

Ms Sushma Swaraj took a pot shot at Mr Rahul Gandhi who broke his silence on the Lokpal issue during Zero Hour on Friday.

Terming his speech as ‘ Pravachan ' she wanted to know why he was allowed to speak for 15 minutes.

> Shishir.s@thehindu.co.in

comment COMMENT NOW