Gujarat Assembly adjourned after uproar over porngate scandal

Gandhinagar, Mar 23: The Gujarat Assembly was today adjourned for an hour as Congress MLAs stalled the proceedings for the third consecutive day, seeking dismissal of two BJP MLAs accused of watching porn in the House. As soon as the question hour began Congress MLAs began slogan shouting "dismiss those viewing nude clips in the House" and left their seats and gathered near the Speaker's podium.

They did not stop shouting despite repeated requests made by the Speaker to pacify them. "Please let the House function and kindly take your seats," Gujarat Speaker Ganpat Vasava said. But as the members continued shouting and throwing paper in the air for around five minutes, the Speaker adjourned the house till the end of Question Hour.

Yesterday, the Gujarat Assembly had to be adjourned four times due to uproar over the issue, and all the Congress MLAs were later suspended for the day, for disrupting the House proceedings.

BJP MLAs Shankar Chaudhary and Jetha Bharwad are under scanner for allegedly watching obscene pictures during the House proceedings. On March 20, Radhanpur MLA Chaudhary and fellow BJP MLA from Shera Bharward were seen spending time on a tablet during the House proceedings and it is alleged that they were watching obscene pictures of women.

Speaker Vasava has already ordered a probe by the Speaker Vasava has already ordered a probe by the Privileges Committee into the unsavoury episode, after asking the Assembly secretary to confiscate Chaudhary's i-pad/tablet and send it for forensic test.

The two BJP MLAs have denied the charges and have alleged that this was a conspiracy to malign them and their party. The issue has generated a lot of heat with the Congress, which is demanding dismissal of the two MLAs, forcing adjournment of the House several times in the last two days.

PTI