BJP plans massive campaign to highlight contents of white paper

Sources in the party said that each of the party’s state units will hold press conferences on the white paper, and will attempt various campaign styles in all 543 Lok sabha constituencies ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is planning a massive campaign to take the contents of its white paper of a financial audit of the 10 years of UPA government across every Lok Sabha segment once the ongoing Parliament session is over. 

Sources in the party said that each of the party’s state units will hold press conferences on the white paper, and will attempt various campaign styles, such as nukkad-baithaks, in all 543 Lok sabha constituencies ahead of the polls. The pointers from the white paper, sources said, could also find its way into the BJP’s 2024 poll manifesto. 

Calling it the “lost decade”, the BJP in its white paper said that the UPA “inherited a healthy economy but made it non-performing” in 10 years. Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced the white paper in her speech on the interim Budget on February 1. 

Party sources said that the white paper, which was tabled in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, will be discussed for over 8 hours with over 12 speakers participating.

The plan to have the white paper was thought of by the party’s central leadership when the Budget was being prepared, said those in the know, and the document took over a month to be drafted. The document, which runs into 50 pages with an additional two pages of annexures, touches upon the coal scam, the power outage of July 2012, 2G scam, Commonwealth Games, Saradha Chit Scam, INX Media case, Aircel-Maxis, Antrix-Devas etc. 

An union minister, who did not wish to be named, gave the example of the BSNL-MTNL and the Antrix-Devas cases. “In the Antrix case, despite four reminders by the International Court of Arbitration, India had not appointed any legal counsel, and by 2019, the government was staring a fine of over Rs 20,000 crore,” the minister said. 

The minister added that there was also a possibility of impounding and auctioning of Indian assets, such as Air India aircrafts in the case. In the case of BSNL and MTNL, the minister added that by the time 5G spectrum sale was announced, BSNL did not have the permissions for 4G spectrum usage.   

“The decision-making in the UPA years was not direct and transparent, and the Devas deal was a classic example, where the prime minister had to intervene and finally scrap the deal,” the minister said. 

Preempting the white paper, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge released a 54-page 'black paper' of the BJP’s 10-year with Modi at the helm, calling it a “chargesheet” of the “mismanagement” during the NDA years.

“The Modi government's 10 years in power have devastated the country's economy, aggravated unemployment, destroyed the country's agricultural sector, abetted crimes against women and committed grave injustices against minorities in the country,” the paper stated.