No confidence motion: The dinner party at the Parliament was organized on a short notice
As the debate on the no-confidence motion against the government looked set to go on till late in the Lok Sabha, there was a burst of activity in another part of the parliament building.
Preps for a massive dinner started in the kitchen, with sacks of potatos, onions and peas making their way into the Parliament House. They were allowed in with special permission; security rules don't permit anything being taken in or out of the building when the house is running and MPs are present.
The trash, explained the staff, would be taken out only after the house ended and all the lawmakers left the building.
For the dinner party organized at short notice, a menu was scrawled with advice from the "food committee", which includes lawmakers and officers.
The menu included: chicken masala, fish fry, mulligatawny soup, paneer mutter curry, zeera rice, dal tadka, mixed vegetables, raita and tawa roti.
The kitchen was shut down, which meant that snacks were not available in the canteen.
Speaker Sumitra Mahajan had allotted a fixed time for every participant in the debate, but as is the norm, every speech went well past it.
After a 12-hour marathon session, the government was able to comfortably defeat the opposition-backed no confidence motion, with 325 votes to the opposition's 126.