In February 2012, three ministers of the Sadananda Gowda-led Bharatiya Janata Party government in Karnataka were filmed looking at pornographic pictures and videos on a mobile phone inside the Assembly during a discussion on drought and irrigation. Lakshman Savadi and CC Patil subsequently lost their place in the cabinet.

In December 2014, another BJP MLA from Aurad constituency in the state’s Bidar district, Prabhu Chavan, was caught looking at a picture of Priyanka Gandhi on his mobile phone. He was admonished by the House and forced to apologise.

On November 10, in the latest such incident, the camera crew of a private Kannada television channel filmed Tanveer Sait, education minister in the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government, viewing pornographic pictures on his mobile device during a state function on Tipu Jayanthi in Raichur. When the visuals went on air, the minister went on the offensive, registering a case against the reporter under Section 504 of the Indian Penal Code – intentional insult to provoke breach of peace.

Leaders of both the ruling party and the Opposition have demanded Sait’s resignation, but Chief Minister Siddaramaiah appears to be backing the minister from his home district Mysuru.

No action yet

Siddaramaiah said an investigation into the allegations is on. “But what’s important is whether the mistake has been committed,” he added. “I don’t want an innocent person to get punished, regardless of the person’s stature or party affiliation. I won’t accept the report that Sait submits to me. I will get the incident probed before initiating action.”

However, the chief minister is under pressure from within the party to let the minister go. Many Congress leaders told Scroll.in that Sait, who joined the cabinet in June, should be sacked as his actions have affected the party’s image. A woman leader raised the issue at a party meeting in Bengaluru on Monday, which was presided over by Karnataka Congress chief and Home Minister G Parmeshwar. Seeking Parmeshwar’s intervention, she said the chief minister should sack Sait if he is serious about protecting the party’s image.

“I will convey the workers’ feeling, particularly that of women workers, to the chief minister and the party high command,” Parmeshwar promised.

The Opposition BJP and Janata Dal (Secular) also demanded that Siddaramaiah act against Sait, with state BJP president and former chief minister BS Yeddyurappa recalling the chief minister’s demand for the resignation of the three BJP ministers in 2012. “What morality does the minister have to hold the education portfolio when he himself is immoral?” he asked.

Yeddyurappa’s colleague and the leader of the Opposition in the House, Jagadish Shettar, said on Monday, “A chief minister who boasts of being a morally upright person should sack the minister. The forthcoming Assembly session will be a stormy one if the chief minister fails to remove the minister.”

The session begins in Belgaum district on November 21.

Some Congress insiders said Siddaramaiah was willing to make Sait step down, but the latter was reluctant to quit and had reportedly asked the chief minister why he was being singled out and why the same yardstick had not been applied to ministers who had been accused of irregularities in governance or corruption. “Why did you not seek the resignation of Social Welfare Minister H Anjaney when his wife was caught accepting money from a decoy planted by a TV channel in the guise of seeking favours from the minister?” one party worker quoted Sait as having asked Siddaramaiah.

In such circumstances, Siddaramaiah, it appears, is trying to buy some time. “Only after receiving the investigation report from the police can I take a decision,” he told reporters, denying that he was shielding the minister.

The reporter, Siddu Biradar, said he was yet to receive a copy of the complaint and first information report against him. “We will contest the case as we have not caused any intentional insult to the minister and have only discharged our duties as journalists,” he said.

Sait, on his part, denied any wrongdoing and said he was not quitting. “I was only checking WhatsApp messages on Tipu Jayanthi celebrations in my native district Mysuru,” he said. “When I have not committed any mistake, why should I bother about the consequences and resign from the cabinet?”

He added that being a member of a reputed family – his father, the late Aziz Sait, was a political leader of stature – he would not be foolish enough to make such a mistake. He also seemed to have stepped back in his actions against the television channel. After initially threatening legal action against the channel, he later said he had filed a complaint to seek a copy of the original and raw video clipping, so he could prove his innocence. He denied acting with the intent to scuttle the freedom of the press.

In the past

Controversies such as the one involving Sait go back a long way in Karnataka. In the 1970s, Chief Minister Devaraj Urs of the Congress was forced to sack three ministers on various charges of misbehaving with women. One of them was RD Kittur, who faced charges of abducting and confining a woman. Then there was B Shivanna, finance minister in the Urs cabinet, who lost his job for allegedly misbehaving with film star Rehana Sultan at a state lottery draw at the Vidhan Soudha banquet hall. The actor reportedly threatened to hit the minister with her sandals in front of guests.