New Delhi: Gujarat Speaker Ganpat Vasava on Wednesday ordered a probe into allegations against the two BJP MLAs accused of watching porn during Assembly proceedings. The probe was ordered after Congress MLAs disrupted assembly proceedings, demanding the Speaker take action against the BJP legislators. A parliamentary panel will probe the matter.
Legislators Shankarbhai Lagadhirbhai Chaudhary and Jethabhai Ghelabhai Ahir Bharwad were on Tuesday seen spending time on their tablets during the House proceedings with a journalist watching the assembly proceeding alleging that they were viewing obscene pictures of women.
"Chaudhary showed his tab to another MLA Bharwad. First they started by watching the pictures of Swami Vivekananda, then cartoons and then pictures of women," senior journalist Janakbhai Purohit said. "I went to Speaker's chamber and complained about it to his PA, who informed the Speaker and the viewing was stopped," he said.
The BJP has, however, denied the charges. Party's state unit general secretary Vijay Rupani said the allegations are false and cooked up on the instance of Congress. "I believe that they were not watching such material on the tablet," Rupani said. "However, if required we will inquire about the incident," he further said.
Chaudhary, however, denied allegations, saying that this was an attempt to malign his image. "The allegations of me watching porn in assembly is baseless. This is an attempt to politically malign me. The assembly proceedings are recorded in CCTV. I request the Opposition to check the CCTV footage. All the allegations against me are baseless. I am not the person who watches porn at all."
Bharwad said, "This is baseless and wrong. I will resign if found guilty. Mediapersons are showing the correct thing. You should be truthful. We have not done anything wrong. We are very hurt. Opposition party is targeting us. We are ready to face an enquiry. We will resign if found guilty."
Reacting to the allegations against BJP MLAs, Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari slammed the BJP for violating temples of democracy. "Sad that BJP ruled states are violating temples of democracy. This is their real 'charitra' (character)," he said.
Leader of Opposition in Gujarat Assembly Arjun Modhwadia said that BJP's real face has now come out in open and demanded that a House Committee should investigate the matter.
"BJP's real face came out in the open when legislators were caught watching porn clips in Karnataka assembly. Legislators in Gujarat also were caught watching obscene photographs. A house committee should investigate this case," Congress leader Modhwadia said.
BJP leader Balbir Punj said, "If this news is indeed true, we will take action on the guilty MLAs just the same way as we did in the case of Karnataka."
The issue created uproar in the House. When the House gathered around 12 pm, two Congress MLAs Siddarth Patel and Iqubal Patel demanded that the two accused legislators be dismissed from the House.
Following their demand, other Congress MLAs started waving a vernacular newspaper which carried a report on the conduct of the MLAs and began shouting slogans "dismiss those watching naked pictures."
Speaker Ganpat Vasava at that point said that display of newspaper is not allowed in the House and tried to calm the unruly members. But as sloganeering continued, the Speaker adjourned the House for an hour.
Congress MLAs then reached the office of Chief Minister Narendra Modi and shouted slogans demanding dismissal of the duo.
In February, three MLAs in Karnataka were caught watching porn in the Assembly.
(With additional inputs from PTI)
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