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Three ministers of the Karnataka State government resigned Wednesday after they were accused of watching pornographic footage on a mobile phone during a session of the state assembly.

One of the ministers involved is the minister of Women and Child Development. This seems to be the first such incident in India, where mobile phone ownership has skyrocketed in recent years to more than 700 million, but phones that show videos and surf the Internet are still relatively new.

The ministers involved are C. C. Patil, minister of Women and Child Development, J. Krishna Palemar, minister of the Public Works Department and Laxman Sangappa Savadi, minister of the Cooperation Department.

The ministers were captured on film on Tuesday by television news channels. During these channels’ regular filming of the assembly session, they position cameras above ministers in attendance, which happened to be a good vantage point to see what the ministers in question were watching on their phones.

All the ministers belong to Hindu nationalist party known as the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is known for its conservative stand on social issues. Earlier this year, Minister Patil was quoted saying “I don’t favor women wearing provocative clothes and always feel they need to be dignified in whatever they wear.”

What, exactly, the ministers were watching on the phone is unclear – it was described as “pornographic” in nature by the television channels who filmed it. Video clips show Minister Savadi with his phone dangling casually between his legs, while a debate in the assembly raged, news channels said about the Pakistani flag being raised in a village in Karnataka in recent weeks. What he is looking at was blurred out when it was rebroadcast.

The B.J.P. promised tough action against their members. “We have deep sense of regret that any of our members are involved in this” said Arun Jaitley, a senior B.J.P. leader and opposition leader in the upper house of Parliament.

The ruling Congress party did not miss the opportunity to criticize its rivals. Kapil Sibal, a senior minister in the Congress-led national government said, “When the B.J.P. waxes eloquent on issues of morality, if they look at their own members of the legislative assembly, they will find the answers there.”

Mr. Patil, the minister involved, said he was innocent, telling journalists Wednesday “We will request the honorable speaker to conduct an investigation and we will come out with a clean chit.”

The state opposition parties including Congress demanded immediate dismissal of the three ministers. The B.J.P. government enjoys a very thin majority in Karnataka. One of its former ministers is still in jail for alleged massive corruption in the exporting of iron ore.