Amid reports of rift with the Congress high command and speculations over joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress MP Shashi Tharoor continues to provoke his party leadership. The latest trigger is in the form of an article he penned as part of the 50th anniversary of the Emergency, in which he expressed scathing criticism of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and her son Sanjay Gandhi.
In the article titled ‘Heeding the Lessons of India’s “Emergency”’ – published on Tuesday, July 8 in Project Syndicate, a global media outlet that publishes opinion pieces – Tharoor wrote that the silencing of dissent, the curtailment of fundamental rights to assemble, write, and speak freely, and the blatant contempt for constitutional norms during the Emergency era left an indelible scar on India’s polity.
The article was published in Indian newspapers, both English and regional publications, on July 10.
‘Today’s India is not the same’
The MP wrote that the constitutional transgressions during the Emergency enabled a horrifying litany of human-rights abuses. “Torture in detention and extrajudicial killings – though less publicized at the time – were dark realities for those who dared to defy the regime,” he wrote. However, he noted that today’s India is not the same as it was in 1975. “We are a more confident, more prosperous, and, in many ways, a more robust democracy. Yet the lessons of the Emergency remain alarmingly relevant,” he pointed out.
The article said that the actions during the Emergency translated into unspeakable cruelty, often targeting the poor. “In fact, the quest for “discipline” and “order” often translated into unspeakable cruelty, exemplified by the forced vasectomy campaigns led by Gandhi’s son, Sanjay, and concentrated in poorer and rural areas, where coercion and violence were used to meet arbitrary targets. Slum demolitions, carried out with ruthless efficiency in urban centers like New Delhi, rendered thousands homeless, with little to no concern for their welfare,” he wrote.
Without naming any individual or political party, Tharoor said that such acts were later downplayed as unfortunate excesses.
Though he refrained from mentioning ‘Congress’ in the article, Tharoor pointed out that the affected communities overwhelmingly voted Gandhi and her party out of power in the first free elections after the Emergency was lifted.
Conflicts in Congress
Tharoor’s disagreements within his party came from his decision to contest for the post of All India Congress Committee president in 2022. Though only 11% votes were polled in his favour, his contest was seen as a challenge to the supremacy of the Gandhi family in the party.
After winning his Lok Sabha seat for the fourth consecutive time, he is reportedly nursing ambitions to be the next chief ministerial candidate of the United Democratic Front (UDF) in Kerala. Even as his chances dwindled following his rift with the party high command, he continued to express his desire. Recently, he shared reports of a survey that put him as the top choice of UDF’s CM candidate in the upcoming Kerala Assembly election. As per the survey, 28.3% backed him as the CM candidate.
Tharoor’s recent stand in favour of the BJP-led Union government following Operation Sindoor and open praise of PM Narendra Modi have triggered speculation that he would switch political allegiance. However, he has repeatedly denied such reports.