Chandigarh, September 24
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 September 27, Punjab minister Aman Arora has termed it “unfortunate and condemnable”.
He accused the governor of acting at the behest of the BJP to implement ‘Operation Lotus’ in Punjab.
Addressing a press conference here, the New and Renewable Energy Sources Minister said that in the past 75 years, no President or governor had 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 the BJP and Congress to weaken the democratic system and stop the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government from working for the welfare of common people,” he said.
Arora claimed that in the states where the BJP did not have its government, they had assigned duties to governors to act as the opposition and implement their dubious agenda 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,” he said.
“The latest attempt to murder democracy is that the governor’s office has sought the details of legislative business for the September 27 session, which has never happened in the past. Earlier, the governor withdrew his assent for a special session called by the AAP government on September 22, at the behest of the BJP as that would have exposed Operation Lotus,” Arora said.
He said that in Delhi the BJP’s Lieutenant-Governor was preventing the AAP from working and now in Punjab, the BJP had assigned this job to the governor. “They are afraid of the growing popularity of AAP and want to stop the party by any means from raising pro-people issues. But AAP will continue to work to safeguard democracy,” Arora added.
He also targeted the Centre’s BJP government for denying him permission for a tour to Europe.
