Indian lawmakers deny porn charge

An Indian lawmaker said charges that he and another assembly member in Gujarat state were watching pornography during an state assembly session are untrue. Shankar Choudhary said no such incident took place and the charge against him and Jetha Dharwad was "a baseless and fabricated allegation just to defame us," BikyaMasr.com reported Wednesday. Choudhary and Dharwad are both members of the Hindu Nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). A local journalist shot a video that the journalist said shows the two lawmakers looking at vulgar photographs of girls during a session of the Gujarat state assembly. The charge comes weeks after three BJP ministers in the southern Indian state of Karnataka were forced to resign over a similar charge. At the same time, the party has been accused of links to Hindu vigilante groups that have been assaulting women for violating traditional values.