GG News Bureau
New Delhi, 10th July: In a move that further deepens his ongoing tensions with the Congress leadership, senior party leader Shashi Tharoor has stirred controversy by penning a powerful article on the 1975 Emergency imposed by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The piece, published by media non-profit Project Syndicate, not only condemned the excesses of the Emergency but also took a veiled swipe at his own party for having “downplayed” those dark chapters in Indian history.
Coming just ahead of the 50th anniversary of the Emergency, Tharoor’s sharply-worded critique highlighted the authoritarian overreach, human rights violations, and the collapse of democratic institutions during the two-year period. “The judiciary buckled… journalists, activists, and opposition leaders found themselves behind bars,” he wrote, calling it a time when “unchecked power became tyrannical.”
A particularly scathing segment pointed to Sanjay Gandhi’s forced sterilization campaigns and slum demolitions in Delhi, acts that Tharoor said were justified under the guise of ‘discipline’ and ‘urban renewal’, but in reality amounted to “unspeakable cruelty.” Tharoor’s assertion that these were later “downplayed as unfortunate excesses” is being seen as a pointed jab at Congress leaders who have traditionally defended the period with hesitation or silence.
Tharoor also underscored how the Emergency offered a grim reminder of how fragile democratic institutions can be. “The erosion of freedom often happens subtly at first,” he warned, urging all democracies to remain vigilant against creeping authoritarianism.
Though the article didn’t name Indira Gandhi directly in every instance, it highlighted the role she played in enabling centralized power and called the Emergency a cautionary tale. “Whatever order the Emergency delivered came at a very high price: the soul of our republic,” he wrote.
The piece comes at a politically sensitive time for Tharoor, whose relations with the Congress high command have been increasingly strained. His recent praise for the Modi government’s handling of Operation Sindoor following the Pahalgam terror attack drew sharp reactions from party colleagues. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge indirectly criticised Tharoor by saying, “Some people feel ‘Modi first, country later’.”
Tharoor, in response, posted a cryptic message with a bird in flight: “Don’t ask permission to fly. The wings are yours. And the sky belongs to no one.”
The Congress’s own position on the Emergency has long been a sensitive subject, particularly the actions taken under Sanjay Gandhi’s influence. While the BJP has turned June 25 into Samvidhan Hatya Divas (Constitution Killing Day) to attack Congress, the party has attempted to counter the narrative by accusing the Modi government of running an “undeclared Emergency”.
Tharoor’s article also revisited the post-Emergency elections, which saw Indira Gandhi’s stunning defeat, as evidence of the public’s rejection of autocracy and abuse of power. “The India of today is not the India of 1975,” he wrote. “Yet the lessons of the Emergency remain alarmingly relevant.”
His concluding message was a warning to all democracies: “Let us not merely remember the Emergency as a dark chapter in India’s history, but internalize its lessons… Democracy cannot be taken for granted.”
While Tharoor’s article has earned praise from critics and neutral observers for its intellectual honesty, it has once again spotlighted the Congress’s uneasy relationship with its own past — and the growing chasm between its old guard and outspoken leaders like Shashi Tharoor.
