New Delhi, Dec. 17: The Lok Sabha passed the twin terror bills a day after they were tabled, but not before the “unity” buzzword ringing since the Mumbai strikes took a few knocks.

The home minister set the tone for the “we are united in our fight against terror” charade, making an impassioned appeal to the House to push through the National Investigation Agency Bill and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Bill.

“With folded hands,” said P. Chidambaram, “I appeal to all sections of the House to support this move…. Let us demonstrate our unity of purpose by passing these bills unanimously.”

But the disunity peeped out from behind the façade of unity before long, as rival politicians began taking potshots at each other in between doing lip service to the buzzword.

Union science minister Kapil Sibal kicked off the process when he took on L.K. Advani argument for argument, replying to his jibe that it had taken the Congress seven years to “wake up” to the need for a stringent terror law.

“You have woken from the slumber of Kumbhakarna after the last seven-eight years. I want you to accept you were wrong and it was a mistake,” Advani said during his hour-long speech.

“Subah ka bhula shaam ko wapas aaye to usey bhula nahin kahte (When a person who goes astray in the morning returns home in the evening, he is no longer called foolish),” he continued, rubbing it in further.

Needling the Congress a little more for doing a U-turn after the Mumbai strikes, he said the media had termed the legislation “old wine in new bottle and UPA returns to Pota”.

The BJP leader alleged the government had already done a lot of damage to the country by waking up so late, and it could now not say “this law is secular and Pota was communal”.

When Sibal’s turn came, he dissected each of Advani’s statements with lawyer-like precision.

“In life as in politics, nothing is static… ideologies change. We all learn from experience,” he said, not forgetting to remind Advani that the NDA had been unable to curb terror despite having a tough law like Pota.

“Had the NDA government not released Masood Azhar during the Kandahar hijack, the attack on Parliament would not have taken place,” Sibal said, scoring another point.

He then argued that the terror bills were by not a move to bring back Pota in a new garb as the Congress did not “want to throw basic human rights into the dustbin”.

“This law is not a replica of Pota. For you (NDA), Pota was a tool to take your politics forward. For you, Pota meant Politicisation of Terror Agenda.”

The Left parties created a hiccup by listing its proposed revisions early in the day, but did not press for amendments later. Nor did the Akali Dal spoil the show despite its reservations, possibly convinced by Chidambaram’s appeal for “unity” in the time of terror.