MUMBAI: In the latest scandal involving India lawmakers, officials in Gujarat have been accused of watching pornography during assembly. The report publicized by officials in the Western Indian state, is the second such porn scandal this year to hit the Hindu nationalist BJP. Shankar Choudhary and Jetha Dharwad, both members of the BJP, which rules at state level, watched obscene clips on a tablet computer during a state assembly, local newspaper journalist Janakbhai Purohit said. Purohit shot a video of the lawmakers looking at porn and lodged a complaint with assembly Speaker Ganpat Vasava. “They started looking at vulgar photographs of girls, I realized that this was wrong. I had no option but to inform the speaker's office,” Purohit said. Choudhary said the accusation was “a baseless and fabricated allegation just to defame us. No such incident took place.” The controversy comes weeks after three BJP ministers in the southern state of Karnataka were forced to resign after a similar scene. The right-wing Hindu party has been accused of moral policing in some of the states it governs. Hindu vigilante groups linked with the party have assaulted women drinking at bars for violating traditional values. Manish Tewari, spokesman of the Indian National Congress which leads the federal government, slammed the BJP. “If elected legislators continue to defile the temples of democracy, then people will lose faith in them,” he said. Across Western India, in Gujarat and Maharashtra, the neighboring state, Indians are becoming fed up with the reported corruption of lawmakers. In Nasik, some three hours northeast of Mumbai, local receptionist Hasir told Bikyamasr.com that “I just don't get it, are they stupid? If they want to watch porn and sex can't they do it on their own time, not when they are supposed to be fighting for people?” His sentiments were echoed by dozens of other Indians, who despite being proud of their massive democracy, are hopeful that legal restraint will help move the country forward to “tackle the real problems.” BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/6Na5c Tags: Gujarat, India, Lawmakers, Porn Section: Latest News, South Asia
