From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Belgavi/Bengaluru

Updated

Belgavi/Bengaluru, Dec 10: Two years after the infamous blue-film watching espisode by the then three BJP Ministers – Krishna Palemar, LaxmanSavadi and C CPatil – who were later forced to quit during the BJP rule in Karnataka when present Union Law Minister D V Sadananda Gowda was the chief minister, two other BJP MLAs – Prabhu Chavan and Ravi Subramanya – have been caught watching the zoomed in pictures of Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra during the ongoing winter session of the State Legislature in Belagavi on Wednesday.

(Pic: DHNS)

Prabhu Chavan, representing BJP from Aurad in Bidar district, who created ruckus in the State Legislative Assembly by carrying a waste-paper basket on his head reportedly containing fake ration cards during the morning session, was caught by Television Channels covering the proceedings watching Priyanka Gandhi’s pictures after zooming them on his smart mobile phone.

Another BJP MLA Ravi Subramanya, who represents the Basavanagudi assembly constituency in the city, who was sitting next to Prabhu Chavan was also caught watching the pictures from Prabhu Chavan’s smart mobile phone.

Banakar Caught Playing "Candy Crush"

Yet another BJP MLA U B Banakar from Dharward, who was elected on KJP ticket and joined the saffron party along with former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa, when the latter merged his party before the LokSabha polls, was caught "playing" the online game "Candy Crush."

When the house was seriously debating the plight of sugarcane growers, another BJP MLA and former minister UmeshKatti was seen happily chewing and enjoying "paan."

Ambarish too was fiddling with mobile phone

Incidentally, two ruling Congress MLAs, including Housing Minister Ambarish and S S Mallikarjun were also caught busily fiddling with mobile phones inside the house.

S S Mallikarjun is the son of minister Shamanur Shivashankarappa.

The house was discussing the problems of Sugarcane growers due to non-payment by the sugar factories and the JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy, former chief minister, was speaking on the plight of the sugarcane growers.

With Kannada television channels telecasting the questionable action of BJP MLAs, which is certainly not in keeping with parliamentary decorum, the two MLAs were forced to come out with tame explanations and even apologies for their action.

Prabhu Chavan, who spoke to reporters in the precincts of the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha in Belagavi, confessed that he was watching the pictures of Prime Minister NarendraModi and other BJP national leaders on his smart phone when the pictures of Priyanka Gandhi suddenly "crept in." He, however, did not explain why he zoomed the pictures or showed them to brother MLA Ravi Subramanya, who was sitting next to him.

"Yes, it was a mistake"

Prabhu Chavan expressed regrets for his action and mentioned that he should not have done it. "Yes, I accept my mistake and apologise for using mobile phone when the session was in progress," he said.

"But I had not watched any indecent or objectionable pictures. I was looking at my daughter’s wedding pictures and while scrolling, the pictures landed on other photo albums of Modi and Priyanka," Prabhu Chavan added.

Meanwhile, Ravi Subramanya clarified that he was not "watching the pictures" with Prabhu Chavan and said that he advised the latter not to do so during the session when the House was discussing.

Ravi Subramanya also mentioned that he would be writing the Assembly Speaker Kagodu Thimmappa not to allow members to carry mobile phones inside the house and make suitable arrangements for the members to deposit their mobile phones, iPads and other electronic gadgets outside the house and enable the members to collect them while going out of the house.

Assembly Speaker KagoduThimmappa remarked that the incident was a "serious issue" and a clear breach of parliamentary norms and decorum. "We may have to seriously think of banning mobile phones inside the House and enforce the norms. There may not be any other alternative," he said.

"It shows BJP Culture"

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah took sharp exception to the conduct of the legislators, especially from BJP, and said it "shows their culture."

"We know what happened in the House in the past, when BJP MLAs were caught watching blue films on their mobile phones inside the House," he said.

BJP Opposition leader Jagadish Shettar, who succeeded Sadananda Gowda as the chief minister during the BJP regime, said the action of party MLAs watching pictures in the mobile phones is "wrong and cannot be tolerated."

However, Shettar said Prabhu Chavan and even Ravi Subramanya did not watch any obscene pictures.

MLAs should exercise self-restraint

State BJP President Prahlad Joshi, who is attending the ongoing parliament session in Delhi, said the action of the party MLAs using mobile phones when the legislature session was in progress was wrong and made it clear that he would ask all party MLAs to exercise self-restraint and avoid using mobile phones inside the House.

It may be recalled that two other BJP MLAs from Gujarat – Shankar Choudhury from Radhanpur and Jetha Bharwad from Sehra -- were also allegedly caught watching objectionable blue films on their ipads in the Gujarat assembly in March 2012.

However, the MLAs were cleared of the charge of watching blue films later by the Forensic Science Laboratory, which was asked to examine the ipads, as the electronic gadgets were found to have stored "4000 pictures and 11 video clips," though none of them were of obscene nature.