Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], February 10 (HBTV): Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram said that the existing Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) will be repealed and a new PMLA law will be drafted if the Congress comes to power at the centre. 

‘If we come to power, the PMLA will be repealed. We will make a new PMLA law,’ Chidambaram said during a discussion on his book, "The Watershed Year: Which Way Will India Go?" at the Kolkata Literary Festival 2024. 

The senior Congress leaders said that they were pressurized to notify the PMLA when his party was in power.  

"We didn't implement PMLA willingly. In 2002, it was passed. We were pressurized to notify the Act," he said. 

Speaking about the amendments made to the Act, he said, "We did. We made two amendments. I made the offence non-cognizable. Even then, I didn't anticipate that this law could be weaponized. Every law is being weaponized."  

The opposition has accused the Narendra Modi government of misusing central agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate as a political weapon to target opposition leaders. 

Earlier on Friday, Chidambaram referred to the white paper presented on the Indian economy in Parliament as a "white-lie paper" and a "hatchet job".

"The White Paper put out by the government is a hatchet job. It is a white-lie paper. Even the authors will not claim that it is an academic, well-researched or scholarly paper," Chidambaram said in a statement.  

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented a "white paper" on the Indian economy in Parliament on Thursday.

The document, which was prepared by the Ministry of Finance, essentially compares the 10-year record of economic governance under the Congress-led UPA governments (between 2004-05 and 2013-14) with the 10-year record of the BJP-led NDA governments (between 2014-15 and 2023-24).      

(ANI) This story has been edited for clarity and brevity.