Senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi has said that plans to develop Varanasi as a city like Tokyo and Kyoto would fall flat if basic infrastructure wasn’t developed in the city. Prime Minister Narendra Modi represents Varanasi in the Lok Sabha and the constituency had earlier been considered to be Joshi’s bastion. Joshi was reportedly not too pleased after being shunted to contest from Kanpur in the 2014 elections. According to a report by India Today, Joshi, while addressing a seminar organised by the Banaras Hindu University said that “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”. In a reference to PM Modi’s plans of introducing bullet trains Joshi again said that he was not against the idea “but first we need to have the basic transportation facilities”. A team from the Union urban development ministry visited Tokyo and Kyoto recently to try and replicate the model in the PM’s constituency. “Do we want a city standing on a pile of garbage?” he was quoted as saying. Read more at: Murli Manohar Joshi questions Modi's plans, says Tokyo-like Varanasi still a distant dream