A Congress MLC in Karnataka was left red-faced after he was caught on camera browsing through porn clips on his mobile phone during the proceedings in the state Vidhan Parishad on Friday. The visuals of Prakash Rathod purportedly watching the pornographic content on his mobile phone, which was blurred out for television broadcast, was widely aired by many Kannada channels.
After the purported video went viral, the Congress leader came out to defend himself. Prakash Rathod, also the spokesperson of Karnataka Congress, said he was deleting messages to free up space on his mobile when some TV channels recorded it. He claimed he was not watching objectionable content.
A senior council official has, however, said that Rathod had breached the no-phone rule and added that the council chairman may punish him for doing so.
In another blooper, a member of the Goa unit of the Congress party, had in 2017, ‘accidentally’ shared a pornographic clip in the official WhatsApp group the party maintains for communicating with the media. Barnabe Sapeco, who was also a photojournalist forwarded a video to the WhatsApp group. The video had turned out to be a porn clip, which caused a lot of hullabaloo among the 80 odd members in the group that comprises both the journalists and Congress leaders.