He drew  loud jeers from the Left and the Samajwadi Party, as they protested the “preferential treatment” given to the nominated member by the Chair, by allowing him to speak for over an hour.

“I am the master’s voice of the world’s most powerful democracy. I am an inveterate, undoubted friend of the United States because US is a democracy, it believes in human rights,” Mr Jethmalani said.

Be it one liners or taunts thrown at SP member Jaya Bachchan, or provoking SP’s Amar Singh, CPM’s Sitaram Yechuri or BJP’s Yashwant Sinha, the sharp comments from Mr Jethmalani brought the House virtually to a standstill. Amar Singh dared the Chair to throw him out of the House for protesting the “discrimination” against him and Mr Yechuri by not allowing them to speak for as long. Besides, nominated member and noted economist Bimal Jalan withdrew his name from the list of speakers in protest.

“I see that Mr Jethmalani has been given precedence though his name is much below mine in the nominated members’ list. I withdraw my name from the list (of speakers) and assure you (the Chair) that I will never put my name on the list again,” a miffed Mr Jalan told Deputy Chairman K Rahman Khan.

Mr Khan explained that Mr Jethmalani had got more time to speak and had moved up the speaking order list because RJD had told the Chair that its time be given to him.

Mr Jethmalani started by accusing the government of not being able to explain the deal properly to its adversaries. He then took on the BJP saying it wanted to have the deal only on its terms. Unabashedly praising the US for coming to India’s aid during the 1962 Chinese aggression, he said he was not a hypocrite like the “private pornographers who pretend to be public purists”.

The inimitable advocate simply continued to provoke his opponents by seeking “ten more minutes” to conclude.  For the record, Amar Singh refuted the charge that SP had “softened” its opposition to the nuclear deal during the debate in Lok Sabha.