Parliament is the only place where doing no work will get you more headlines than doing it. For the past 13 days, the legislative business of the government had come to a standstill because of the confrontation between the government and the Opposition over the demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the 2G spectrum scam. And unlike the times when pedestrian-quality debates are buried in the inside pages of newspapers, the ongoing logjam in the House has been grabbing headlines consistently.

What?s more, the drama outside the House has undoubtably overshadowed what happens inside. On Friday, CPI leaders Gurudas Dasgupta and D Raja went to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. They reportedly told him that they had nothing against him personally and they thought he was an honest man, but that he needed to accede to the Opposition?s demand for a JPC. The Prime Minister was not amused, and reportedly replied that the whole drama had denigrated the office of the Prime Minister, which was not good, regardless of the party in power. ?It could be you tomorrow,? he reportedly said. When Dasgupta recounted the tale after the meeting, all everyone wanted to know was just how Manmohan Singh could assume that Dasgupta could ever be Prime Minister.

At the all-party meeting called by Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar to break the logjam, the Congress (as usual) fielded finance minister Pranab Mukherjee to find a way out. As Mukherjee, true to his style, went into the historic context of the JPCs, one Opposition leader said he understood that the JPC would not be granted. ?As usual, Pranabda went back to 1920; it would be a while before the government veers down to 2010,? he said.

Parliamentary affairs minister Pawan Bansal, who has had a rough ride so far, is busy hunting down a good astrologer to find out which combination of stars have jinxed his job. Last heard, he was even willing to give former Prime Minister Deve Gowda?s astrologer a go.

As ordinary MPs mark attendance and leave within an hour of Parliament convening, most of them thank their stars that it is wedding season in north India. ?At least we can attend those to fill in the time,? said one MP from Uttar Pradesh.

As Parliament awaits some business to be conducted, it is open season on news, not all of it reportable.

nistula.hebbar@expressindia.com