It could have been foretold by anyone by late afternoon. The UPA was not only in a hopeless minority, under most severe opposition from its own constituent, Trinamool Congress, but had no intention of putting the bill to vote.

The buzz had been that a bitter exchange could be engineered in the house to disrupt the proceedings of the house.

Through the evening, TV Channel CNN-IBN kept mentioning the possibility of a "bitter exchange" to disrupt the house that could take the proceedings to midnight.

It even mentioned Rajniti Singh by name.

Political analyst Yogendra Yadav called it the worst form of match-fixing. He called the UPA tactics as trying to be too clever by half but hoped that it would not come to this sorry pass and this particular drama would not be enacted because it had been announced on national television.

But clearly, there was desperation in the ruling camp, and the claim seemed to be confirmed when Rajneeti Singh proceeded to tear up the bill in Rajya Sabha, and as the video clip shows, the minister concerned did not seem to be even making a half-hearted attempt to stop him..