Khare even kept track of the number of times Congress MPs thumped their desks. 'It was 23 times,' he beamed.

When it was the turn of the Congress' P.C. Chacko to deliver a spirited speech taking potshots at the BJP, Sinha got up to leave. Many Congress members were immediately on ther feet, shouting at him and asking why was he unable to swallow the truth.

Sinha returned in a minute to find Congressmen hollering: 'He is back, he is back'. The BJP leader shrugged, visibly irritated.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh often looked at each other and laughed when Chacko lambasted the BJP. They were also seen thumping their desks.

The debate also saw a war of words between Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav and BJP members, who wondered aloud why Yadav was criticising some aspects of the government's foreign policy when his party was providing it external support.

Yadav snapped back: 'We fight for real issues of the people and where the government is going wrong, we will criticise it.'

National Democratic Alliance (NDA) convenor and Janata Dal-United leader Sharad Yadav, in his speech, referred to Chacko's charge that the NDA government had many a time erred in its foreign policy.

Many members laughed out aloud when Sharad Yadav said: 'We admit we made some mistakes and this is why we are sitting in the opposition. That does not mean you should also repeat the same mistakes.'