“The video clippings had women dancing; they were later raped by four men. Palemar told me such things happen abroad at rave parties. Since the House was discussing Malpe rave party, I watched it.”

This is what BJP Minister Laxman Savadi told the media, defending what he did yesterday on the floor of the Karnataka assembly: watch porn.

Look at his commitment and sense of preparedness! We only hope he comes equally well-prepared for discussions on poverty, female foeticide, dowry deaths, so on and so forth.

However, the House was reportedly discussing the prevailing drought conditions in the State when he not only lost himself watching porn, but also invited Ministers J Krishna Palemar and C C Patil to peep in.

It is the same Patil, Women and Child Welfare Minister, who recently argued that women “invite” rape because of their “provocative clothing”. Looks like he was digging deeper yesterday to prove what kind of women get raped. Or, who knows, this is his background research to design schemes for “women and child welfare”!

Now we know why our legislators, regardless of political stripes, demanded the assembly secretariat that they be given yet-to-be-released Apple iPad3 recently. They are apparently not happy with the older version. That’s progress!  I always thought these men knew the function of only two buttons: hit home or hit escape.

It is not surprising to ‘learn’ that hardcore porn is our politicians’ fantasy land. What is sad is it is such men who make a mockery of serious issues concerning women and go about making ludicrous comments in public. What cannot be tolerated is they do it so brazenly while cameras pry on them and think that they can get away with it.

Maybe they have a point. This crime pales in comparison with what happened in the past: rape charges against their colleague Haratalu Halappa and serious sexual harassment case against Minister Renukacharya. The ruling BJP government did everything to downplay these incidents. There is no reason why it can’t extend similar solidarity to this tainted triumvirate, too.

Related article: Dress code to women, clean chit to rapists?