Senior BJP leader and former Varanasi MP Murli Manohar Joshi during a seminar at BHU Senior BJP leader and former Varanasi MP Murli Manohar Joshi during a seminar at BHU

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Murli Manohar Joshi has said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's grand growth plans for Varanasi won't be of any use till there is infrastructural development in the city.

"I am not against the development of Varanasi on the lines of Tokyo and Kyoto, but there is need for infrastructural development before going ahead on that path," the BJP veteran said at a seminar organised in Banaras Hindu University (BHU) on Sunday evening and asked: "Do we want a city standing on a pile of garbage?"

Referring to another of Modi's mega plans, Joshi said: "I am also not against running bullet trains, but first we need to have the basic transportation facilities."

PM Narendra Modi PM Narendra Modi

His statement is being viewed in the backdrop of Modi's plan to develop his parliamentary constituency - Varanasi - on the lines of the highly developed cities of Tokyo and Kyoto in Japan.

A multi-disciplinary team of the Union urban development ministry and officials of Varanasi had recently visited Tokyo and Kyoto to study the model of development in the cities and chalk out similar plans for the PM's constituency.

The senior BJP leader, who has not been given any place in the Modi government, was speaking at a seminar on 'Integral Humanism: Cultural Nationalism' (Ekatma Manav Darshan: Sanskritik Rashtravad) - an ideology which was propounded by Bharatiya Jana Sangh leader Deen Dayal Upadhyay.

Joshi said an exploitation-free society can be created only with the help of implementation of the treatise of Upadhyay.

It was only three days ago that former Union minister Arun Shourie had dubbed the Modi government 'directionless' and said that the 'trimurti' of Modi, Amit Shah and Arun Jaitley was running the BJP and that it had offended the Opposition and frightened other party members. Joshi was the Varanasi MP from 2009 to 2014. He was shifted to Kanpur against his wish because Modi was fielded from the seat.

Joshi's unease regarding Modi's rise had first been revealed during the Lok Sabha election when he had reportedly tried to undermine the Gujarat model of development on which Modi had anchored his election campaign. "The Gujarat model cannot be applied across the country," Joshi had said.

However, the veteran BJP leader has been facing opposition in his own constituency Kanpur. Some people had recently put up posters of 'missing' Joshi across the city.