NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday put the motormouths among the BJP on notice saying that they should focus on development and governance, asserting that nobody was allowed to deviate from the core agenda.

“We were elected on the plank of development and governance and we should stay focused on it. No deviation or dilution is acceptable. Even I cannot move away from this if wish to,” said Modi.

Modi was addressing BJP MPs against the backdrop of a string of statements from some members, which have threatened to obscure the party’s twin themes of development and governance besides giving an opening to opponents to embarrass and harass his government.

The PM made it clear that he meant business right at the outset as he asked officials of the PMO, who had accompanied him to the auditorium in Parliament House, to leave. He also asked MPs who were scattered across the hall to bunch closer as he took exception to the party leaders speaking out of turn.

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He said that one of the party leaders announced that he would be visiting Varanasi on December 25 without checking with him. “Please stop being my spokespersons because I don’t need one. I am just a worker and speak for myself. Else, there is process which is laid down for the purpose and which everybody ought to follow.”

Holding forth on the theme of development and governance, the PM said both were complementary. “Development essentially means creation of infrastructure like buildings, hospitals. But this by itself is of little use unless it is backed by good governance which means provision of quality services like good doctors and efficient support staff in a hospital,” Modi said.

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Modi also emphasized that people were increasingly taking development as an entitlement and therefore the government must go beyond the creation of infrastructure to ensure quality of services in order to measure up to expectations of the electorate.

The party managers felt that the renewal of focus on governance was necessary to rein in the Hindutva hardliners who are seeing the return of BJP to power at Centre as an opportunity to assert themselves.They regret that the volubility of such elements gave the opponents an excuse to disrupt Parliament and thwart the government’s bid to pass crucial legislation like hike in FDI cap for insurance sector.

Modi announced that government plans to hold a number of programmes on December 25 to mark the birthday of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee as “Good Governance Day”. He said, “Atalji’s birthday is a day of pride for us.”

The occasion also saw PM driving home his “commitment” to Swacchh Bharat. “The programme is not a statement but a commitment. It is the people who have taken the lead and if we fail to do it, we will be rendered irrelevant.”

Read this story in Hindi: मोदी की चेतावनी, लक्ष्मण रेखा न लांघें बीजेपी सांसद