After Karnataka's dirty picture involving three BJP MLAs caught watching porn that rattled the country, two BJP MLAs stand accused of the same eye-rolling ethical breach inside the Gujarat assembly.

Shankar Choudhury, MLA from Radhanpur, and Jetha Dharwad from Shehra were allegedly watching obscene pictures on a tablet with the assembly in session.

The issue rocked the state assembly on Wednesday with Congress demanding dismissal of two BJP MLAs when a local journalist filed a complaint about the two leaders' shameful deed. But shockingly, Assembly Speaker Ganpat Vasava instead of taking any action ignored the complaint initially and suspended the entire opposition for disrupting House proceedings.

The journalist said that one MLA showed a new laptop to his colleague. First, they watched Vivekanand's pictures and later obscene ones.

Under immense opposition pressure, a probe was ordered by the speaker.

But in the same breath, BJP rushed to defend its tainted MLAs with the same vigour that powers its cultural activism.

"This is a conspiracy against the MLAs and part of conspiracy to defame Gujarat. There is no proof that they were watching porn. The MLAs have offered to hand over the laptops for any technical probe," senior party leader Balbir Punj said.

The MLAs in the eye of the storm too lost no time to declare their innocence: We have done nothing wrong. Why are you putting a patch? Let them show the whole clip, the truth will come out.

But the Congress refused to let go of the delicious opportunity to accuse the BJP of political hypocrisy.

State Congress president Arjun Motwadia said, "BJP's real face had come out in open when legislators were caught watching porn clips in Karnataka assembly. Legislators in Gujarat also were caught watching obscene photographs. A house committee should investigate this case."

Congress MP Sanjay Nirupam said, "After Karnataka, it is Gujarat BJP MLAs and this is form a party which takes so much pride in culture. This is very unfortunate."

Two porngate shockers in less than two months. The BJP will have a tough time proving to the world that there's no gap between its rhetoric and reality. But given that the accused in Gujarat are being defended, and those in Karnataka are being let off the hook, it seems the party thinks it can brazen its way out of this crisis of credibility.

Union Human Resources Development Minister Kapil Sibal said, "If those MLAs think this is the kind of entertainment they should indulge in the assembly, what can I say?"

Political conspiracy

The BJP rushed to call the allegation a political conspiracy. "This is wrong and baseless - a move to malign our party," Gujarat BJP leader Yatin Oza told Headlines Today.

"This is an irresponsible action on the part of our opponents. This is an ill-design," Oza added.

State Congress leader Shaktisinh Gohil claimed, on Tuesday the entire press gallery watched the sordid episode that "continued for 20 minutes".

Author Shobhaa De called the incident "particularly idiotic", terming the BJP a party of "porn-watchers". Two similar incidents taking place in "two highly moralistic states telling India how to behave" was not only sad, but that they were not doing their job was a "far more serious thing", De added.

BJP member Shaina NC cautioned against "jumping the gun", adding, "let's wait" for the outcome of the probe. Shaina hastened to slam the Congress over cases involving Congress leaders Mahipal Mederna (Rajasthan) and N.D. Tiwari (Uttrakhand).

Outlook editor-in-chief Krishna Prasad expressed surprise over two similar incidents having taken place in Gujarat and Karnataka, which, he said, were joined at the hip. The MLAs, it seems, found "no other place on the planet" than the august House to do what they did, he maintained. Now they want to "shoot the messenger" by questioning the motives of the scribes.

Mahatma Gandhi's grandson Tushar said "morality has no place in public life". "We should worry about the absolute moral structure of our polity," he said, calling for "criminal charges" to be registered against the MLAs.