Politics and sex scandals have a long association, but there’s always a political price to pay. The latest on the long list of sex scandal-hit Indian politicians is Karnataka Congress leader H Y Meti. The 71-year-old veteran politician resigned as excise minister on Wednesday, barely six months into his cabinet stint, after a video showing him and a woman getting intimate surfaced. Reports about the existence of such a video have been doing the rounds for the last few days, with an RTI activist even alleging that some people claiming to be acting at the behest of the minister warned him against making the video public. But by Wednesday morning, local news channels got hold of the video and started airing it with little inhibition.
The shamed minister had no option but to go. It certainly is a huge setback for Meti in his political career, but the episode is a bigger embarrassment for Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and the Congress party. Only about a month back another minister in the Karnataka cabinet, Tanveer Sait, was caught scrolling through sleazy pictures on his phone at a public function. As expected, the Opposition parties demanded his scalp but Sait kept his job, thanks largely to the strong defence put up by Siddaramaiah and other Congress leaders. However, the Meti sex scandal was not something the party and the government could afford to defend. The story goes that the woman in the video met Meti seeking a favour. But so far she has not accused him of forcing her to share his bed.
How the video was shot and who made it public are not relevant. At this point, Meti’s actions can at best be questioned on moral grounds. But there was no way he could have continued as minister once the scandal became public. The delay in his removal only added to the government’s embarrassment. Though the government had knowledge of the video and was prepared to let go of Meti, it strangely decided to wait till the clip was all over TV screens.