New Delhi, July 28 - A minister in the previous Manmohan Singh government and dropped this time, T.R. Baalu of the DMK, spoke spiritedly on the lack of rain - and for good measure, criticised the government for not pursuing an ambitious project to link the country's rivers.

There were very few MPs in the opposition benches to applaud him for remembering this pet project of the then BJP-led government when it was in power 1999-2004 to link all the country's major rivers. Baalu seldom spoke about it when in the government.