Shashi Tharoor stirs pot again, this time with article criticising Emergency, Gandhis | India News
NEW DELHI: Senior Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Thursday criticised the Emergency and the Gandhis for suspending fundamental rights, in what is seen as another poke at the Congress leadership after defying the party on the Union govt’s global outreach on Operation Sindoor and statements lauding PM Narendra Modi.The remarks targeting Indira Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi in an article on an English website and a Malayalam daily in Kerala appeared to ruffle feathers in Congress, but the party maintained a silence, even though Lok Sabha whip Manickam Tagore, without naming, dubbed Tharoor a “BJP parrot”.Tharoor strongly criticised late former PM Indira Gandhi and her son Sanjay. “Indira Gandhi’s harshness led public life into fear. Indira insisted that only an Emergency could bring discipline to the country. Outside world was unaware of the torture in detention and the murders without trial,” he wrote.He said Sanjay’s actions were extremely brutal and facilitated by the then govt, and people expressed their anger by ousting Indira and her party in the elections in 1977. Tharoor said today’s India is democratic and has gained more confidence and progress. “For 21 long months, fundamental rights were suspended, the press was muzzled, and political dissent was brutally suppressed. The world’s largest democracy held its breath, as the very essence of its constitutional promise – liberty, equality, fraternity – was severely tested,” he said.Tharoor’s article appeared to stir the pot again, given that he has been publicly at odds with Congress on several issues. Recently, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge slammed him for putting “Modi first” as against Congress’ policy of putting “India first”. In retaliation, Tharoor posted on X that a bird did not need the permission to fly in the open skies.What could be provocative for the Congress is that the party recently countered BJP’s offensive on the 50th anniversary of Emergency, stating that India has been under an “undeclared emergency” since 2014.Manickam, in what was an unnamed reaction to Tharoor, said on X, “When a colleague starts repeating BJP lines word for word, you begin to wonder – is the bird becoming a parrot? Mimicry is cute in birds, not in politics.”In his article, Tharoor said the judiciary buckled under immense pressure to back the Emergency, with the Supreme Court even upholding the suspension of habeas corpus and citizens’ fundamental right to liberty, while journalists, activists and opposition leaders were jailed.
