It was really amusing to see the fake expressions of shock on the faces of Lok Sabha members when some stung BJP MPs started displaying the bribes they had been offered to switch their loyalty or to at least keep it drugged till such time the UPA government regained the confidence of the House. They really appeared to be naivety personified. 
How could any one in his proper frame of mind believe that there would be no horses traded (with due apology to horses) when at the stake was the survival of the government more so when we have the precedence of Guruji coming to the rescue of the P V Narsimha Rao government in similar circumstances. The rapidly changing stripes of some of the honourable MPs did evoke some angst but what caused unmitigated disgust was the obscene price the footloose members of the Third Estate demanded and were offered. And Tuesday was not a Black Day at all for Indian democracy as some of the MPs said. It was no less dark a day when a political nonentity like Amitabh Bachchan trounced Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna, or when Govinda demolished Ram Naik. No more pleasant are the days when we the people of India elect the likes of Shahabuddins, Pappu Yadavs, Phoolan Devis and Atique Ahmads to the to the same institution which once had the Ram Manohar Lohia among its members. Much more sickening than the degeneration of our representatives to equiline status is our (or at least those of us who can think) enjoying the day of voting as a mere holiday without bothering to step outside our homes to speak our mind about those intellectually broke, ideologically barren and morally bankrupts who wish to be our representatives. And whenever the anguish is too much to hold back we give vent to it in drawing room discussions: Is desh ka kuch nahi ho sakta; the country is going to dogs. The more agitated among us log in to Internet, join a discussion form or write a blog with some ferocious pounding on the keyboard and after having done our bit for the country lit a cigarette.

We get the government we deserve.