Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday that calling for discipline in today's time is automatically branded "autocratic". Launching a book penned by Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu about his first year in office, Prime Minister Modi said, "Venkaiahji is a disciplinarian, but our country's situation is such that it has become easy to call discipline undemocratic. If someone calls for discipline, he is branded autocratic… The whole dictionary is opened. But the discipline Venkaiahji calls for, he himself follows it."
The book, titled, 'Moving on… Moving forward: A year in office', speaks about the Rajya Sabha Chairman's first year in the job.
Lauding Naidu's punctuality, PM Modi said, "One has to be very alert while touring with Venkaiahji. He never wears a watch, he does not keep a pen, and he does not keep money... He does not wear a watch, but he reaches for programmes on time. And if the programme does not get over in time, then he becomes uneasy. Discipline is in his nature."
Over the past four years, PM Modi has been actively imparting lessons in professional and personal discipline to his party leaders, parliamentarians as well as the bureaucracy. Besides widely advocating yoga for spiritual discipline, the Prime Minister introduced tough measures to bring a degree of efficiency in the bureaucratic machinery.
Last year, he cracked the whip on non-performing officials and, perhaps for the first time in bureaucratic history, prematurely retired 33 tax officers. Other than that, there have been actions including salary cuts against 381 officers — 24 in the Indian Administrative Services and some in the Indian Police Service for indolence and corruption.
Since he came to power in 2014, as many as 80 officers across departments have been dismissed from service.
While interacting with Bharatiya Janata Party MPs from Uttar Pradesh during the event, he urged them to comport themselves well at all levels. This has also been his advice to party leaders during a closed-doors sessions, a BJP leader said on Sunday.
He has been telling the elected representatives to ensure that the government's policies reach the people and that this development is felt on the ground and not "just on paper".
In his bid to ingrain self-restraint in his party's leaders, he has directed them "not to address the nation" out of turn, and leave this job to the authorised party spokespersons. He has ensured that the party's MPs reach on time for parliamentary party meetings.
For all his instruction on conduct and bearing, however, the motormouths in the BJP continue to be a source of embarrassment for his government and party.
Right from Sakshi Maharaj, the BJP MP from Unnao, to Union Ministers of State Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti and Giriraj Singh, and BJP MLA from Meerut Sangeet Som to Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Dev, party leaders have often deviated from the mandate and violated his directions with impunity.
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