Indian state ministers resign over sex video

India: Three state ministers from southern India, including one with a portfolio for women and child development, resigned yesterday after they were accused of watching porn in the local assembly.

The ministers from the ruling right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were filmed by local television watching graphic footage on their mobile phones on Tuesday while other lawmakers in the house were debating legislation. “We have resigned to avoid embarrassment to our party and not give the opposition an opportunity to disrupt the assembly proceedings today,” state minister for cooperation Laxman Savadi told reporters.

“We were watching a clipping of an incident for a discussion on the rave parties held at St. Mary's Island (on the western coast of Karnataka). It was not a porn clip,” he explained.

Karnataka's minister for women and child development, C.C. Patil, and minister for ports and fishery Krishna Palemar also stepped down.

In the television footage, the ministers can be seen watching a woman dancing, undressing and then indulging in a sex act. They passed their mobile phones amongst themselves.

“It is a shameless act. The three ministers have submitted their resignation. We will set up an inquiry committee to probe the incident,” said a spokeswoman for the BJP, Nirmala Sitharaman, in New Delhi.

A survey conducted by India Today magazine in 2008 found that three out of five men and one out of five women approved of pornography, which is illegal but widely available in India. AFP