Allowing TV channels to cover the legislature proceedings from the visitors' gallery cost the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Karnataka dear, as their video cameras caught its two ministers watching porn in the assembly.
The state legislature secretariat, which for security reasons banned video and photo journalists from covering the proceedings from the margins of the house, however, allowed them to record the current 10-day session from the visitors' gallery on the first floor of the Vidhan Soudha.
Video journalists of two-three Kannada news channels, covering the proceedings from a vantage point in the gallery, noticed ministers Laxman Savadi and C.C. Patil glued to a mobile handset and zoomed their cameras to focus on what they were viewing.
A close look and replay of the video footage showed the duo sitting together and watching sleaze on a mobile handset belonging to fellow minister J. Krishna Palemar. All three have now quitn their ministerial positions.
Use of cell phones is prohibited in the state legislature when the assembly and the council are in session. Mobile jammers inside in the monolithic building, however, have not been working due to a snag that remained unattended for weeks by the secretariat staff.
According to reports in the local media, the porn clipping, called 'Abik', is a mobile phone movie (3GPP imported file) of four minute, 12 seconds.
Parts of the remaining footage, beamed later by local and national channels throughout the night, were blurred.
The video clip has been in circulation in Hubli-Dharwad, about 480 km from Bangalore, over the last couple of months.
Savadi, a BJP lawmaker from Athni constituency in Belgaum district, about 500 km from here, was minister for cooperation and agriculture marketing and Patil, another ruling party lawmaker from Nargund segment in Gadag district, was minister for women and child development.
Incidentally, Palemar's mobile phone -- which Savadi and Patil used for alleged porn viewing -- also had a video clipping of the rave party held late Saturday (Feb 4) on St.Mary's Island at Malpe off the state's west coast, which too showed foreign tourists, including hippies having drinks, drugs and indulging in obscene acts.
Ironically, the rave party on the island near Udupi, about 400 km from here, was sponsored by the state government for promoting tourism in the coastal region.