Shashi Tharoor Targets Congress Over Emergency, Says It Was 'Later Downplayed As....'

Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has asserted that the Emergency cannot be looked at merely as a dark chapter in the history of India, but also as a turning point whose lessons need to be carefully analyzed and understood.

In an article published in the Malayalam daily Deepika on Thursday, the member of the Congress Working Committee looked back at the 21-month duration between June 25, 1975, and March 21, 1977, when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had imposed a national Emergency.

Tharoor conceded that the desire to impose discipline and uphold order at the time tended to lapse into acts of repression and brutality that are indefensible even today.

He specifically cited the controversial role played by Sanjay Gandhi during the Emergency. "Sanjay Gandhi, the son of Indira Gandhi, led forced sterilisation campaigns which became a notorious example of this. In poor rural areas, violence and coercion were used to meet arbitrary targets. In cities like New Delhi, slums were mercilessly demolished and cleared. Thousands of people were rendered homeless. Their welfare was not taken into consideration," the Thiruvananthapuram MP wrote.

Tharoor emphasized the vulnerability of democratic institutions and underlined the necessity to protect them. "Democracy is not a joke; it is a valuable inheritance that has to be perpetually nourished and protected," he pointed out.

In his column, Tharoor pondered how India has progressed since 1975, saying, "We are a more self-assured, more advanced, and in many respects a more robust democracy. Yet, the teachings of the Emergency continue to hold relevance in disturbing ways."

He cautioned that impulses to consolidate power, stifle dissent, and bypass constitutional limits can always arise — in their updated forms. "Such impulses could often be defended in the name of national interest or stability. In that sense, the Emergency is a stern warning. The custodians of democracy must ever be vigilant," Tharoor concluded.

Let it be a permanent reminder to all people," he called on behalf of the people everywhere, reaffirming the call for ongoing vigilance and devotion to democratic principles.