Karnataka sleaze row leaves BJP embarrassed

Bangalore: A day after three Karnataka BJP ministers were caught watching an obscene clip in the Assembly, the party has shown them the door.

Three ministers, CC Patil, Lakshmana Savadi and Krishna Palemar, who were caught watching porn in the Karnataka Assembly have been barred from attending the Assembly till the probe into the matter is over. A six-member committee has been formed to look into the matter and the Assembly was adjourned sine die on Wednesday.

The six-member committee will submit its report by March 12.

Caught on camera watching a porn video clip on their mobile phones in the State Assembly, the three Karnataka ministers seem to have taken Indian politics to a new low.

Stung by public embarrassment, a desperate BJP asked ministers CC Patil, Lakshman Savadi, who were caught watching the clip and Krishna Palemar, who gave it to them, to resign.

However, Lakshman Savadi said that they resigned on their own will. "We resigned on our own. There was no high command order," he said.

But BJP President Nitin Gadkari maintained that the ministers were asked to resign.

But the issue went far beyond just a political embarrassment. It turned into an instant trend on Twitter, with comments ranging from the humiliating to the humorous.

Executive Editor of Mid-Day Sachin Kalbag tweeted, "Yeddyurappa wanted his govt to follow Modi model. But, his ministers preferred Berlusconi model!!"

Telecom minister Kapil Sibal, for once, had nothing to complain about social networking sites. "BJP leaders know how to entertain themselves," Sibal said.

One-third of the Karnataka Cabinet has resigned on various charges ranging from sleaze to corruption in the last 44 months. All of it has added to the BJPs southern chaos. But this time, politicians seemed to have re-defined a new low for behaviour inside an Assembly.