Bangalore:
The Karnataka Speaker has asked a six-member House committee to inquire into three ministers being allegedly caught on camera watching porn on a cellphone in the Assembly yesterday. Before that the three BJP leaders - Lakshman Savadi, CC Patil and Krishna Palemar - have to explain to Speaker KG Bopaiah by February 13, what really happened. All three resigned as ministers today, but the Opposition wants them out as MLAs too.
The House Committee will submit its report by March 13. Till then the three ex-ministers cannot attend Assembly. The committee will look into the allegation that Mr Savadi, Mr Patil and Mr Palemar viewed two clips on a phone - one was pornographic, the other was a news story on a rape - while Assembly proceedings were on. A local channel that was broadcasting Assembly proceedings caught them on camera. According to reports, the person holding the mobile phone in the video clip shown by the channel is Mr Savadi, who was minister for cooperation till he quit. The person sitting next to him is Mr Patil, the women and child development minister till yesterday. The phone allegedly belonged to Mr Palemar, minister in charge of Mangalore, who gave it to Mr Savadi, sources said.
(Read: Top 10 facts on Karnataka porn scandal)Chief Minister Sadananda Gowda accepted his ministers' resignations at a BJP meeting here early today morning. But the Assembly convened to uproar, with Opposition members shouting "shame, shame" and demanding that the three BJP MLAs be expelled. Some Opposition members also suggested that the Chief Minister and his government quit too and the three BJP leaders be prosecuted.
(Watch) The Speaker held a meeting of party leaders in his chambers and then announced the House Committee probe saying, "The serious incident has come to my attention. It will be looked into with the seriousness it deserves. I will ask them to explain. It should never occur again. If guilty they will be punished." He then adjourned the Assembly sine die.
The BJP is red-faced. Party president Nitin Gadkari said today that the matter would be investigated and he noted that his three partymen had said they were innocent. The BJP has set up an inquiry, but it will find it hard to shake off the humiliation of the incident in a hurry. The party president is in Uttar Pradesh, in the middle of the crucial state elections, and the BJP can ill-afford such scandal right now. Mr Gadkari is believed to have worked the phones last night, calling the CM and state party chief K S Eshwarappa in Bangalore as the party went into a huddle and scrambled to try and limit damage.
Senior party leader Arun Jaitley said the party would take strict action if the three Karnataka leaders were found to indeed have indulged in the unseemly act.
The three ministers say they were not asked to quit by the party leadership. Lakshman Savadi said the three were quitting because of what had been said about them in the media. "The high command has not said anything, we ourselves requested both the government and party to accept our resignation," he said. He had held a press conference yesterday to deny watching porn and had added, "I am not a criminal." Mr Patil said he wants the Assembly Speaker to inquire into the incident. And a "clean chit" thereafter.
While the BJP tries to ride out the storm with a stiff upper lip, the Congress and other Opposition parties will not let go of such political manna. Among the many sniggers is the one from Union Minister Kapil Sibal when he said, "BJP leaders have all kinds of entertainment, sometimes political, sometimes something else." And Trinamool leader Derek O'Brien tweeted, "If an MP (or) MLA watches porn in his bedroom, it's his problem. If he watches it in (the) Parliament (or) Assembly it's a big problem."
The Congress' Veerappa Moily said the ministers' resignation was not enough for the "shameless act"; the ministers, he said, should be suspended by the Assembly Speaker and should be arrested for "violating the law and the sanctity of the Assembly." Cellphones are not allowed inside Assembly and watching porn is illegal, apart from the charges of "morality and perversity" that the Congress has levelled.
Mr Savadi's house was stoned last evening by protesters who were then taken away by the police.