The proceedings in Parliament "could have been better", feels Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as the nearly month-long and often acrimonous Budget session draws to a close tomorrow.
"It could have been better," was Singh's cryptic reply when asked about the Parliament session on the sidelines of the function to give away the Padma awards here this evening.
The Budget session, which began on February 21, saw the opposition parties making strong attempts to corner the government on several corruption charges, including the 2G spectrum scam, the controversial ISRO-Devas deal and the latest revelations made by Wikileaks on the cash-for-votes issue.
The session also saw the opposition move a privilege motion against the Prime Minister for "misleading" Parliament with his remark that an inquiry panel had not found enough evidence to prove that money was used to win the 2008 trust vote by UPA government.
An uncharacteristically aggressive Singh had dismissed the Opposition charges and said nobody from Congress or the government was involved or had "authorised" anybody to engage in "transactions" like purchase of MPs during the trust vote.