Edit: Porn row exposes BJP's selective morality

When the Congress criticised the BJP after two of its ministers were caught watching porn in the Karnataka assembly, the opposition party’s spokesperson, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, shot back: “What about the Congress? What about the Bhanwari Devi case? What about ND Tewari?”

This stale excuse of a response would have come as no surprise to anyone who is remotely familiar with the workings of the BJP. Every time it is caught with its pants down, so to speak, the ‘party with a difference’ has the singular refrain: Why target us alone? What about them?

The ‘porn in the assembly’ scandal is only the latest controversy where the BJP’s duplicity has been exposed. Starting from the 2002 Gujarat riots to its recent reluctance to show BS Yeddyurappa the door in Karnataka, the BJP’s response to any allegation of wrongdoing has been to point to the Congress and say, ‘Even they did the same.’

But the latest incident is bound to affect the party’s image more than previous boo-boos, particularly because the BJP loves to harp on morality and probity in public life. The problem is that when it comes to the BJP’s own, however, it is quite happy to turn a blind eye to transgressions, as the Babu Singh Khushwaha fiasco in Uttar Pradesh, which came immediately after a sustained campaign against the UPA on the issue of corruption, showed.

This is the kind of attitude that saw the party cede the role of principal opposition to Anna Hazare’s motley bunch last year when public anger against the ruling coalition’s corrupt ways were at a peak. It is only in the party’s interest that it takes the recent episodes seriously and sets its house in order. If it keeps ignoring these warning signals from its own stable, the party risks being reduced to a national joke.