If you did not make time to watch the parliamentary debates on Tuesday, you missed a great deal of fun and some endearing, Aaaayo moments too. Here are a few screenshots of what happened.

Screenshot 1: The leader of the opposition about to read the PNQ that had been sent to our newsrooms. It was a direct, focused question with receipts of illegal cash transactions amounting to Rs3.5 million. We held our breath hoping the prime minister, who allegedly made the illegal cash payments, can explain how people can walk around with that much cash and where the money – in cash – came from that it could not transit through the legal channels of a bank. The implications of the PNQ with the documentary evidence are huge and involve several potential criminal acts that would send anyone packing into jail for years. We are no longer talking just about the image of a prime minister and his family. We are talking about allegations of graft, corruption, money laundering and tax evasion…all in one question. I honestly was rather hoping that, for the sake of this country, Pravind Jugnauth would stand up and deny that those receipts are genuine and do what he does best – threaten legal action. My hopes were dashed as he sat quietly as if all those allegations were being made about someone he had never met!

Screenshot 2: Speaker Sooroojdev Phokeer was immediately on his feet. He always is these days, isn’t he? He wanted Arvind Boolell to read THE question. It took us time to realise that he had edited Boolell’s question, removed the embarrassing bits, deleted one question and was insisting that the leader of the opposition – who occupies a constitutional post lest anyone has forgotten – read the edited question.

Screenshot 3: MMM MP Rajesh Bhagwan was being asked to leave. He might be a hindrance in what follows.

Screenshot 4: The leader of the opposition giving a press conference in the middle of the street. “They cannot prevent us from doing our job. I have asked my colleagues not to walk out but to stay and carry on with the democratic business,” he challengingly said to the journalists who were dodging rushing passers-by and motorcycles while trying to take note of whatever they could hear in the middle of the hustle and bustle of Port Louis. Yes, you have guessed right: the speaker decided that the leader of the opposition could not use his own office for a press conference.

Screenshot 5: A very disciplined class with their heads lowered to avoid crossing the eye of a tyrannical teacher. They meekly asked kind questions about the number of car thefts, Pack and Blister…and obediently listened to the prime minister and his ministers reading endless, prepared speeches about climate change, cyclones, flash floods, parking spots, the efficiency of Safe City cameras…without blinking. This was one of those real Aaaayo moments. At some point, the teacher even instructed Labour MP Ehsan Juman to ask his question ‘in one minute’! When the latter objected slightly, Phokeer simply went to the following kind question.

Screenshot 6: An ICAC working full blast: shoving every stained piece of linen in a magical washing machine.

Screenshot 7: Ambassadors, high commissioners and representatives of international organisations chuckling at us bragging about accountability, transparency and good governance and pledging to eradicate corruption, have fully independent institutions, bla bla bla…to come off the EU blacklist. With no 1 and former n 2 of our government being accused of grand corruption and being investigated, a speaker standing as shield to make sure no arrow hits the accused, an anti-corruption body that participates in the process of avoiding any accountability every time an accusation is directed at its masters, there is a fat chance of that!