Savadi, (above) Patil

Bangalore, Feb. 16: Watching porn is naughty, but shown watching porn at the workplace can be risky, as some lawmakers have found out.

So cut out “troublesome” private eyes.

Stung by a private television channel that filmed two ministers watching alleged pornographic clips on a mobile in the Assembly, the ruling BJP in Karnataka is mulling a dedicated official channel to cover proceedings.

Reason: an official channel could immediately switch off such mischievous sneak peeks before they reached viewers.

Unlike Parliament, where state-run Doordarshan is the only channel allowed to cover proceedings, the Karnataka legislature has always allowed private broadcasters.

Speaker K.G. Bopaiah, however, said it was up to the state government to decide whether to allow or ban private channels. “As per the telecasting guidelines issued four years ago by the Lok Sabha secretariat, it is entirely up to the government concerned to decide if private channels are to be barred or allowed,” he told reporters today.

BJP sources told The Telegraph several senior ministers were for banning private channels after News9, a private channel, beamed footage of two ministers watching the alleged smut video while a member was speaking, throwing the party off its moral high horse.

The BJP later forced the two — Lakshman Savadi and C.C. Patil — to resign as well as another minister, J. Krishna Palemar, on whose cellphone they were watching the clips. The ministers later claimed they were watching a rape and murder scene in Iran to prepare for a debate on crimes against women.

Law minister Suresh Kumar denied any move to ban private channels from the House, but insiders confirmed BJP leaders had met at the party’s state headquarters to discuss the proposal. They said several leaders, including state unit chief K.S. Easwarappa, had mooted the idea of an “official” channel on the lines of Lok Sabha TV.

It wasn’t immediately clear if the ruling party was working towards switching off private channels before the budget session in March. The state BJP chief was not available for comment.

The sources, however, said the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh was not in favour of banning private channels from the Assembly at this juncture. The apparent reason was it might backfire, with the media getting another chance to hammer the BJP, which has been in the news for all the wrong reasons starting from the mining scam.

Congress leader and chairperson of the Karnataka Legislative Council B.K. Chandrashekar said any move to ban private channels would be an “immature knee-jerk reaction”.

State Congress chief P.C. Siddaramaiah was the first to oppose any such move when murmurs of a likely ban rose in the immediate aftermath of the smut scam. “We will not allow such a ban,” he said. “We want this government to be dismissed.”

Janata Dal (Secular) chief H.D. Kumaraswamy said he couldn’t support the move as it came from a party that was “badly wounded”.

The Congress and the JD(S) have both demanded that the three former ministers be disqualified.

Savadi, Patil and Palemar today replied to the showcause notice served on them by the Speaker. Bopaiah confirmed the trio had replied but said he was yet to examine their letters. The Speaker said the House committee set up to probe the scandal would go ahead with the enquiry.