Three Indian politicians from a morally conservative party, including a women’s affairs minister, resigned today after being caught watching porn on a mobile phone during a session of state parliament.
News channels broadcast footage showing Karnataka state Minister for Cooperation Laxman Savadi sharing a porn clip with his colleague CC Patil, the minister for women and child development, while sitting in the state assembly.
The owner of the phone, state Minister for Ports, Science and Technology Krishna Palemar, also quit.
size-full wp-image-5836″ />
‘We are requesting the honourable Speaker of the House to conduct an inquiry and we’ll come out with a clean chit,’ Patil said, denying that they were deliberately looking at porn.
The three men said they did not want to cause any embarrassment for their party, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, which rules the state and is in opposition at a national level.
There has been outrage over the incident not just from rights activists and right-wing Hindu groups in conservative India, but also from the riling Congress party which called for the assembly to be dissolved
‘We live in a country where there already is this social mindset that women are disposable commodities and are seen as transferable properties,’ Renuka Chowdhary, a former federal minister for women’s development and a member of the Congress Party.
‘It really is troubling that the people who are in positions of power and have the responsibility to change things actually have the same mindset and are busy watching porn,’ she told the CNN-IBN news channel.
Girls and women in largely patriarchal India face a barrage of threats including rape, dowry-related murder, forced marriage, domestic violence, honour killings and human trafficking.
Savadi and Patil both denied ‘enjoying’ porn and initially refused to step down.
‘It is untrue. We were not enjoying porn. The mobile phone does not belong to me. It was passed on to me by another member (ports minister Krishna Palemar), who had the clipping of the controversial rave party at Udupi. I merely went through the contents.
‘I have not done anything wrong,’ Savadi said.
The video footage appears to shows Savadi watching a number of porn clippings.
‘The truth is like this… The mobile phone had a video of a rape incident.
The victim is murdered by the rapists. Subsequently, the people chase the rapists and catch them.
‘Later, the government awards death sentence to the accused. Patil and myself were sympathising with the victim.
‘That’s it. I need not resign over this trivial issue,’ Savadi added.
Patil maintained that he did not watch the porn clipping. ‘I was was trying to switch off the mobile handset, which was in his possession.
‘This issue is being blown out of proportion,’ the minister said.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2098319/Indian-politicians-caught-watching-porn-mobile-phone-state-parliament-debate.html#ixzz1lopshaOM
