A day after Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit sought details of legislative business to be taken in the Assembly session called by the state government on 27 September, Punjab Cabinet minister Aman Arora alleged that the Governor is acting at the behest of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to implement  ‘Operation Lotus’ in Punjab.

Addressing a press conference, the state new and renewable energy sources minister of the state said the governor’s decision is “unfortunate and condemnable”.

He said in the past 75 years, no president or governor has ever asked for the list of legislative business before calling the session. This is happening for the first time because the Punjab governor is clearly working in cahoots with BJP and Congress to weaken the democratic system and stop the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government from working for the welfare of common people, Arora said.

He said wherever the BJP doesn’t have a government, they have assigned the governors the duty to act as the Opposition and implement their dubious agendas to prevent the ruling government from functioning. That’s why the governor is sending notices to the AAP Government frequently and preventing the party from functioning freely as per the Constitution of India, the AAP leader added .

“The latest attempt to murder democracy is that the governor’s office sought the details of legislative business for 27 September, which has never happened in the past,” Arora said.

The governor had earlier withdrawn his assent for a special session called by the AAP government on September 22; a step the state minister alleged was taken by him at the behest of the BJP because that would have exposed Operation Lotus.

He said in Delhi, BJP’s lieutenant governor is preventing the AAP from working and now in Punjab BJP has assigned this job to Punjab governor. They are afraid of the growing popularity of the AAP and want to stop the party by all means from raising pro-people issues. But the AAP will continue to work to safeguard democracy, Arora added.

Launching a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the minister said in 2012, when Modi was CM of Gujarat, he had accused the then governor of conspiring with Congress against his government and now, the BJP is following a similar strategy to hamper the functioning of ruling parties across the country.

He also attacked the BJP government for denying political clearance to him for the knowledge exchange tour on Green Hydrogen to Germany, Belgium and Netherlands, which was aimed to get investment and latest technologies to Punjab.