A day after the ruling BJP government in Karnataka was left red-faced after three of its ministers were caught on camera watching and sharing a pornographic clip in the assembly, the party on Wednesday forced the tainted trio to quit. Chief minister DV Sadananda Gowda later said the ministers resigned voluntarily to avoid embarrassment to the government.
The incident involving environment minister Krishna Palemar, co-operation minister Lakshman Savadi and women and child development minister CC Patil led to vociferous protests by opposition members.
There was pandemonium in both houses of the state legislature with the opposition demanding the disqualification of the tainted trio from the assembly as well as booking criminal cases against them. After repeated adjournments, speaker KG Bopaiah said a committee comprising six members of the assembly will probe the incident and submit its report before March 12.
The speaker also issued show-cause notices to the three ministers asking why they should not be barred from attending the proceedings of the house. He has set a February 13 deadline for them to reply. Earlier in the day, Palemar, Savadi and Patil submitted their resignations to chief minister Gowda after the state BJP leaders decided to sack the trio for having embarrassed the party and the government. But Gowda said the trio resigned voluntarily. The assembly proceedings were scheduled to start at 11am on Wednesday. However, members trooped in only after noon and the proceedings began around 12.30pm.
Leader of opposition Siddaramaiah’s efforts to initiate a debate on the issue through an adjournment motion met with strong protests.
Members from the government, however, pointed to the rule book that says one must give a seven-day advance notice for the motion.
As cries of ‘shame, shame’ from the opposition led to further pandemonium, the speaker adjourned the house for 30 minutes. The proceedings, however, began 75 minutes later and the house was adjourned again till 3.30pm as there was no end to the chaos.
Addressing the media outside the assembly hall, Siddaramaiah reiterated that the three tainted ministers should not be allowed to enter the house. “They must be disqualified from the assembly and a criminal case should be booked against them at the Cubbon Park police station,” he said.
He also said chief minister Gowda must quit if he was unwilling to take stringent action against the ministers. “The assembly should be dissolved and the government should seek fresh mandate,” he said.
The house resumed business at 4.45pm and was adjourned sine die after the speaker announced a probe into the porn-clip incident. This led to another round of protests from the opposition members as the house was scheduled to conduct business till February 10.
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