Neil Parish, a lawmaker from Britain’s Conservative Party, stepped down after he was caught watching adult content in the House of Commons chamber twice. Prior to him, lawmakers in Karnataka have been caught on two incidents watching pornography
Conservative MP for Tiverton and Honiton, Neil Parish apologised for watching adult content inside British Parliament, calling it a ‘moment of madness’. AFP
A British lawmaker resigned on Sunday after admitting he watched pornography on his phone in the House of Commons chamber.
Neil Parish from the ruling Conservative Party admitted that he had watched porn twice in the British Parliament and described it as a “moment of madness”.
Speaking to BBC, Parish, who represents Tiverton and Honiton in Devon in the House of Commons, said that the first time was accidental after looking at a tractor website, but the second time was deliberate.
The situation came to light when two female colleagues claimed they had seen him looking at adult content on his phone while sitting near them.
When asked why he watched adult content, Parish was quoted as saying that he did not know and that he must have “taken complete leave of my senses” and “sense of decency”.
“I was wrong, I was stupid, I lost sense of mind,” he said, adding that he was making a “total full apology” for his actions, the BBC quoted him as saying.
This isn’t the first time that a lawmaker has been caught watching pornography in the legislature. Here’s a look at some past instances from India and the world.
Porngate in India
In January 2021, the Congress was left red-faced when one of its legislators was caught browsing through obscene clips on his mobile phone in the state legislative council.
Footage showed that Congress’ Prakash Rathod was watching pornography, a claim that he rejected.
His defence at the time was, “Usually we do not carry mobile phone inside the house, but I wanted to ask a question and hence was checking my phone. I realised that my storage was full and so I started deleting clips that were unwanted.”
Also read: The Dummy’s Guide for Politicians Watching Porn
A similar incident had taken place back in 2012, this time in Karnataka’s Legislative Assembly.
The guilty party was Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Laxman Savadi who was watching pornography on his mobile phone while the Assembly was in session.
The news channels positioned in the media gallery of the state Assembly had captured the footage of Savadi watching the content along with then Ministers J Krishna Palemar and CC Patil.
The clip showed Savadi watching a video on mobile phone and then showing it to Patil. The video appeared to show a woman dancing, undressing and then having sex, BBC had reported. The incident had brought huge embarrassment for the BJP.
The three minister after multiple denials then offered their resignations.
Porn scandal in Indonesia
An Indonesian lawmaker who had helped pass a tough anti-pornography law in 2011 resigned after he got caught watching sexually explicit videos on his computer during a parliamentary debate.
Arifinto, who belonged to the staunchly Islamic Prosperous Justice Party, was caught on camera gazing at pornographic material.
The case had grabbed eyeballs in the Muslim nation, dominating headlines and discussions on Facebook and Twitter. Critics on social networking sites blasted the lawmaker, with some calling him a hypocrite and others saying he should be prosecuted under the pornography law he helped pass.
Caught ‘blue-handed’ in Brazil
Parliament proceedings can be boring at times and that’s what happened in Brazil back in 2015.
Joao Rodrigues was caught watching pornographic content on his phone during a reform debate in the Brazilian Parliament.
The Mirror reported that the leader belonging to the Social Democratic Party was watching the erotic video under his desk.
It appeared that Rodrigues enjoyed the content so much that he waved over his colleagues to join him in viewing the footage.
Footage of the incident shows two other MPs watching the lewd video over the shoulder of Rodrigues.
Watching porn in India
In India, while viewing sexually explicit material in private spaces is not illegal, Section 67 of the Information Technology Act makes it illegal for anyone to publish or transmit “obscene material” in electronic form.
In 2015, the Supreme Court had orally remarked that it could not stop an adult from exercising his fundamental right to personal liberty to watch porn within the privacy of his room.
Whether it’s legal or not, one thing is sure: people in the country are voraciously consuming adult content.
A study in 2020 reported that the country had seen a 95 per cent spike in traffic to adult sites during the three-week COVID-19 lockdown.
Another study in 2017 showed that the country had climbed to rank three in the list of countries that watch the most porn, after the United States and the United Kingdom.
With inputs from agencies
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