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3 K'taka ministers caught watching porn in assembly quit

Three Karnataka ministers, who were allegedly watching a pornographic clip in the Legislative Assembly resigned, on Wednesday. Bowing to the directives of the central Bharatiya Janata Party leadership, Minister for Cooperation Laxman Savadi, Minister for Women and Child Development C C Patil and Minister for Ports and Science and Technology Krishna Palemar announced after a meeting with top leaders that they have decided to quit. 

"We don't want the party and the government to face further embarrassment. All of us have decided to resign from the ministry," Savadi told the media outside the BJP office. Savadi and Patil demanded that the Speaker of the state assembly K G Bopaiah institute a probe into the issue of watching the porno video footage and expressed confidence that "they would come clean from the allegations."

Palemar, who had to pay a price for allegedly providing the blue film clippings to Savadi, said he was contemplating legal course over the issue.

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3 K'taka ministers caught watching porn in assembly quit

Under the directions of BJP National President Nitin Gadkari, Gowda on Wednesday held a meeting with the state unit Party President K S Eswarappa, former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa, senior ministers Jagadish Shettar and Govind Karjol in the party office and decided to ask the three ministers to put in their papers.

Immediately after receiving the resignations of the tainted ministers, Gowda announced he has forwarded them to Governor H R Bhardwaj, who accepted them.Savadi and Patil said they would submit their resignation to Gowda and request him to accept it. Savadi and Patil, who had to demit the ministry under cloud, blamed the media for blowing the incident out of proportion.

A ruckus broke out in the Karnataka political circles after a television camera spotted Savadi and Patil watching the porn clip.

3 K'taka ministers caught watching porn in assembly quit

Patil and Savadi were said to be watching the clip while the assembly was debating a serious issue pertaining to the hoisting of the Pakistan national flag in northern Karnataka by some miscreants.

The Opposition raised the pitch seeking their resignation. However, Savadi said that it was not a porn clip but the video was about a woman being raped by a couple of men. He said that the assembly was also debating an incident during a rave party in Malpe, coastal Karnataka and hence watching the clip made sense.

Training its guns on the BJP, Congress demanded that the three ministers should be arrested while asking the assembly Speaker to suspend them."They should be arrested," Union Minister Veerappa Moily said, adding, "they have desecrated the sanctity of the assembly."

The BJP said it has set an example of high moral standards and probity in public life by asking the ministers to resign. "The BJP high command took this decision of asking the three ministers, against whom the allegations were made, to submit their resignation," Dhananjay Kumar told reporters.

Gowda said the three ministers resigned to ensure that the opposition did not use the incident as a political weapon against BJP and to cause further embarrassment to the government.

3 K'taka ministers caught watching porn in assembly quit

In Delhi, BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman said, "The ministers have come under cloud, now they have submitted their resignation and they have submitted themselves to be investigated by any competent authority. The Congress had to explain on Raj Bhavan being misused on such shameless acts. The allegation will be investigated, if it has happened, it is worrying."

Congress leader Kapil Sibal said, "Nowadays it appears that some of the BJP people are having all kinds of entertainment. Sometimes political entertainment, sometimes it is entertainment of other sorts".In another development, Palemar denied that it he gave the porno video clippings to Savadi.

"I don't have the habit of watching such things. Let there be a probe into it. I decided to resign on my own. There was no pressure from the party," he told reporters.

Yeddyurappa said some inquiry should be conducted by the Speaker as early as possible so that the truth can come out.

With inputs from PTI

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