The 2012 Karnataka video clip controversy, also referred to as Porngate, was a controversy in the

Karnataka Legislative Assembly The Karnataka Legislative Assembly (formerly the Mysore Legislative Assembly) is the lower house of the bicameral legislature of the southern Indian state of Karnataka. Karnataka is one of the six states in India where the state legislature ...

where two ministers of the state cabinet resigned over claims of inappropriate conduct. It is alleged that they viewed a pornographic video on a mobile device while the legislature was in session.

Incident

In February 2012, Spring Zouk, an international festival described as a

rave A rave (from the verb: '' to rave'') is a dance party at a warehouse, club, or other public or private venue, typically featuring performances by DJs playing electronic dance music. The style is most associated with the early 1990s dance mus ...

party, was attended by mostly foreign tourists at

Udupi Udupi () also known as 'Odipu' () is a city in the Indian state of Karnataka. It is the administrative headquarters of Udupi district, and one of the fastest-growing cities in Karnataka. Udupi is one of the top tourist attractions in Karnataka an ...

beach on at

St Mary's Islands St. Mary's Islands, also known as Thonsepar, are a set of four small islands in the Arabian Sea, off the coast of Malpe in Udupi, Karnataka, India. They are known for their distinctive geological formation of columnar rhyolitic lava (pictured) ...

. The event is coordinated to increase tourism. At this rave, a video of tourists at the event having sex in public was created and the viewing of this video became the subject of controversy. At a session of the

, a camera showed two cabinet ministers,

J. Krishna Palemar J. Krishna Palemar is a former member of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly from Mangalore City North (and erstwhile Surathkal) and a member of the Bhartiya Janata Party, who had served as Minister of Environment and Ports in the B. S. Yeddyura ...

Laxman Savadi Laxman Sangappa Savadi (born 16 February 1960) is an Indian politician from Karnataka. He is currently serving as a Member of Karnataka Legislative Assembly from 12 May 2023. He served as the 8th Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka from 20 August ...

and C C Patil, allegedly watching pornographic clips on a mobile phone. The ministers said that the video was an investigation of the behavior of foreign tourists at the party on St. Mary's Islands, who were having sex in public and consuming drugs and alcohol at the rave organised by the state tourism department and others.

Reactions

Political

On 8 February, all ministers offered resignation letters and the party accepted their resignations. Former Karnataka chief minister and BJP party leader B. S. Yeddyurappa reprimanded all officials for their behavior.

Anna Hazare Kisan Baburao "Anna" Hazare (; born 15 June 1937) is an Indian social activist who led movements to promote rural development, increase government transparency, and investigate and punish corruption in public life. He was awarded the Padma Bhu ...

called for their imprisonment.

Media

An Indian news source claimed that the international media attention of the event was on how the members of the party who were caught viewing the video were in a party which was especially condemning of this sort of behavior. The public sought information about this event using

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

, and

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

. The hashtag "#porngate" was a top trending word on 8 February 2012 on social media site Twitter.

Social

The

All India Democratic Women's Association All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA) is a women's organisation committed to achieving democracy, equality and Women's rights, women's emancipation. It has an organisational presence in 23 states in India, with a current membership o ...

issued a statement that "the anti-women mindset of the former women and child development minister C C Patil, who has been a vocal advocate of dress codes for women, has been thoroughly exposed. The BJP is answerable for justifying and defending hypocrites who indulge in moral policing, while themselves violating all norms of decent behaviour."

References