The White Paper on the Indian economy, which slammed the Congress-led UPA government for “its policy misadventures” and explained how the Narendra Modi government has “straightened” it, will be one of the major poll planks of the ruling BJP with its state units being directed to launch a nationwide campaign around it.

To build the narrative around the 59-page document, tabled in Parliament on Thursday, the government has also scheduled a discussion in the Lok Sabha on Friday and the Rajya Sabha on Saturday.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is expected to reply to the debate for which four hours have been allocated in the Lok Sabha on Friday. The Rajya Sabha will take up the discussion on the White Paper after clearing the legislative business listed for Friday.

Sources said BJP state units across the country will highlight the details of the “White Paper of the Economy” – the first time in Independent India – underscoring “what went wrong in the economy during the 10 years of UPA and the efforts taken by the Modi government to put it back on track”.

Sources in the BJP said the discourse on the White Paper would certainly reinforce the message of the “strong and able leadership” of Modi and the “good governance record of his government that takes the country to be a major economic force in the world.”

A senior BJP leader said: “Every BJP state unit will take this up. The leaders will describe how difficult it was for our government to overcome the crisis created by the UPA government’s mismanagement of economics. Despite the poor state of affairs and the hardships, the Centre had not reduced any tax share for the states. We kept the government on the reform path which led to an increase in revenue.”

The leader said the White Paper would give a reply to the charges of the non-NDA state governments about inadequate tax devolution.

The BJP would also campaign the “differences between the Commonwealth Games in 2010 and the G20 summit in 2023” held under the UPA and the BJP government.

“While one led to the country losing its face, the other enhanced its prestige. While the CWG was centred in the national capital where works were done shabbily and involved corruption, the Prime Minister ensured that every state was involved (for the G20), which gave local economies a fillip,” said a BJP leader.

The Congress government in Karnataka and the Left Democratic Front government in Kerala protested in New Delhi against the alleged “financial atrocities” carried out against non-BJP-ruled states.

Sources in the government said Prime Minister Modi “felt bad and outrageous” at the state of the economy when he took charge in 2014.

“But he took a conscious call not to come out with a White Paper then because the government did not want investors as well as people to lose confidence in the Indian economy. Now, that the government has worked for 10 years systematically to correct the wrongs and improve the situation, it’s time to tell the people,” said the leader, adding, “He (Modi) personally took initiative in correcting the mistakes. For every sector, corrective measures were taken and he personally followed it up.”

“Economic crisis, fiscal management crisis, industrial policy crisis, banking crisis – all were outcomes of the mismanagement – and they pushed the country to the fragile-five-economy status,” said the leader.

The White Paper tore into the Congress-led UPA rule, stating that it had turned the Indian economy into a non-performing one through indiscriminate revenue expenditure, off-budget borrowings and piles of bad debts at banks.

For example, said a source in the government, the UPA government had announced the loan-waiver scheme, but the changes required in the banking laws to ensure that the farmers who got the one-timer waiver would have no difficulty in availing loans in future were not made.

The White Paper also said: “The special bonds in lieu of cash subsidy issued to the oil marketing companies, fertiliser companies and Food Corporation of India by the UPA government totalled a little over Rs 1.9 lakh crore in five years from FY06 to FY10. Their inclusion in the subsidy bill for each year would have swelled the fiscal deficits and revenue deficits.”