BANGALORE: The recent ouster of three ministers after being caught watching porn clips in the Karnataka Assembly isn’t the first instance of BJP ministers being forced to step down after being embroiled in controversies. In fact, 11 ministers, including a chief minister, have quit in the last four years after facing charges ranging from rape to watching porn videos in the Assembly; while a couple of ministers and legislators are either facing court trials or charges.
This, however, is the first time that three ministers—Cooperation Minister Lakshman Savadi, Women and Child Welfare Minister C C Patil and Ports Minister Krishna Palemar—have quit at one go. Eight ministers had resigned during the previous government headed by BS Yeddyurappa.
It was the then housing minister S N Krishnaiah Setty in 2010 who was the first to quit after facing charges of pledging forged documents to get a bank loan of Rs 7.17 crore. The case is being probed by the CBI besides irregularities in a Karnataka Housing Board land purchase.
Then came the shameful incident of food and civil supplies minister Hartal Halappa’s resignation after he was accused of raping his “friend’s wife’’ at the latter’s house at Shimoga. Worse, his action was caught on a mobile camera; the trial is still going on in court. For now, Halappa is now out on bail.
This was followed by medical education minister Ramachandra Gowda who had to make an unceremonious exit from the Cabinet after being caught in a medical college recruitment scam. He was accused of abetting large scale irregularities in the recruitment of Class III and IV grade employees to the state’s Hassan and Mandya medical colleges.
Then came the turn of industries minister Katta Subramanya Naidu who is accused of illegal acquisition of many acres of land for an IT company called ITASCA which was allegedly floated by his family members. Along with him, Katta’s corporator son Jagadish Katta also had to spend almost four months in jail.
After all these lesser mortals, came the fall of big fishes who matter the most in the government. Former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa, tourism minister G Janardhan Reddy, revenue minister G Karunakar Reddy and health minister B Sriramulu (all mining barons) were strongly indicted in the Lokayukta report on illegal mining.
While Yeddyurappa was forced to resign, the other three were kept out of the Gowda cabinet.