Three Indian politicians, among them a women’s affairs minister, resigned after two of them were caught watching what was thought to be porn on a mobile phone belonging to another minister during a session of state parliament on Tuesday. They’re also members of one of the more morally conservative parties.

News channels helped broadcast the shame by showing footage of Karnataka state Minister for Cooperation, Laxman Savadi, sharing the clip with his colleague CC Patil, the minister for women and child development.

While they sat in the state assembly, television cameras caught them watching what was understood to be pornography and didn’t batter an eyelid at airing the recording.

The men deny it though, and claim they were actually watching footage of a woman being raped, and subsequently murdered, at what they have called a rave party.

Savadi explains:

The video I watched was of a woman being raped by four people. It was not porn.

Savadi continued, stating he said he was watching the footage to:

Prepare for a discussion [in the assembly] on the ill-effects of a rave party. The victim is murdered by the rapists. Subsequently, the people chase the rapists and catch them.

Later, the government awards death sentence to the accused. Patil and myself were sympathising with the victim. That’s it. I need not resign over this trivial issue. [But] I have resigned to prevent any embarrassment to the party.

All three of us will prove our innocence.

Mr Patil told reporters:

We are not so uncivilised as to watch porn films. I was trying to switch off the mobile handset, which was in his [Savadi’s] possession. This issue is being blown out of proportion.

It’s no hidden secret that women and girls in the largely patriarchal India face widespread threats like forced marriage, domestic violence, honour killings, human trafficking and rape.

The incident has caused a major outcry amongst rights activists and right-wing Hindu groups, as well as other political parties.

A former federal minister for women’s development, and a member of the Congress Party, Renuka Chowdhary, said:

We live in a country where there already is this social mindset that women are disposable commodities and are seen as transferable properties.

It really is troubling that the people who are in positions of power and have the responsibility to change things actually have the same mindset and are busy watching porn.

The lesson here is that one should prepare before attending a session of state parliament.

[Sources: BBC, DailyMail]