Tharoor’s Emergency article sparks unease within Congress; BJP showers praise

Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor’s strongly worded article on the 50th anniversary of the Emergency, published by Project Syndicate on July 8, has caused discomfort within the Congress for its one-sided focus on the 1975–77 period under Indira Gandhi, while remaining conspicuously silent on concerns surrounding the current political climate under the Narendra Modi-led government.

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The article, titled “Heeding the Lessons of India’s Emergency”, reflects on the suppression of democratic freedoms during the Emergency, describing it as “a 21-month period of authoritarian rule that shattered the world’s faith in India’s democratic credentials.” Tharoor details forced sterilisations, press censorship, judicial capitulation, and extrajudicial violence under Indira Gandhi and her son Sanjay Gandhi. He cites the Shah Commission extensively and calls the period a “dark chapter in Indian history.”

Silence on Modi regime

While the article has been lauded in some quarters for its clarity and moral condemnation of state authoritarianism, its lack of reference to recent or ongoing democratic backsliding in India has led to disquiet within the Congress and provided the BJP with fresh ammunition to target the party.

Tharoor’s column avoids any mention of the Modi government or present-day concerns about democracy, civil liberties, or institutional independence. In fact, the article reassures readers that “India today is not the India of 1975,” and expresses confidence in the maturity of Indian democracy to resist similar authoritarian turns.

This framing stands in sharp contrast to what has been a consistent line from the Congress party, which has in recent years repeatedly accused the Modi government of undermining democratic institutions, curbing dissent, and eroding federalism. The party has frequently described the current situation as akin to an “undeclared Emergency.”

BJP laps up opportunity

On June 25, the anniversary of the Emergency proclamation, the Congress released a video defending its legacy, while also acknowledging that “mistakes were made.” In contrast, Tharoor’s article offers no such qualification, unequivocally labelling the Emergency “a disgraceful period” and denouncing Sanjay Gandhi’s sterilisation campaign as a “massive abuse of power.”

The BJP, which has long used the Emergency as a key ideological weapon against the Congress, quickly latched onto the article. BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla called it a “rare moment of honesty” from within the Congress and asked why the party’s top leadership hadn’t made similar admissions. Amit Malviya, head of the BJP’s IT Cell, shared a link to the article, writing: “Congress MP Shashi Tharoor demolishes the Gandhi family’s moral authority.”

No word from Congress

The Congress has so far made no official comment on Tharoor’s article. No party spokesperson has endorsed or contradicted it in public, even as it gained wide circulation online and in political circles. Tharoor himself has also not commented beyond the article.

This silence is telling, especially in the context of recent events. The Congress leadership has generally been on the defensive about the Emergency legacy and has sought to frame it within a broader critique of the BJP’s contemporary governance model. For instance, Rahul Gandhi and other Congress leaders have regularly described the Modi era as a time of “constitutional crisis,” “institutional capture,” and “democratic recession.”

Tharoor’s piece, while factually accurate about the 1970s, has given BJP leaders an opportunity to ask why the Congress isn’t more apologetic and why it isn’t confronting current issues with the same honesty.

Not the first instance

This is not the first time Tharoor’s position has deviated from the party line. Over the last year, he has praised aspects of India’s G20 presidency, publicly lauded the country’s diplomatic stature, and refrained from strongly attacking the BJP on issues like the Ram Mandir inauguration, all while carefully maintaining a position of “constructive criticism.”

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His 2022 bid for the Congress presidency was seen as a mild challenge to the Gandhi family’s control of the party. Though he lost to Mallikarjun Kharge, Tharoor has continued to operate as a somewhat independent voice within the Congress, particularly on foreign policy and institutional issues.

In this context, the Project Syndicate piece is being read as a continuation of his effort to occupy a liberal, internationally respectable space, without committing to confrontational opposition politics domestically.

Signs off with a warning

However, Tharoor leaves himself a line of self-defence, closing with a broad warning that could be read as a veiled critique of the present, allowing him to say that even a fierce condemnation of the Emergency can come from within the Congress.

“The India of today is not the India of 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. The temptation to centralise power, to silence critics, and to bypass constitutional safeguards can emerge in many forms, often cloaked in the rhetoric of national interest or stability. In this sense, the Emergency should serve as a potent warning: democratic stalwarts must be eternally vigilant,” he concludes.

Trouble for Cong in Kerala

In his home state of Kerala, where the Congress faces direct competition from both the Left and the BJP, Tharoor’s article could prove doubly damaging.

“We’re not commenting on it officially, but his office has clearly been working overtime, rolling out surveys and publications. And yet, he didn’t even catch the obvious flaw in the Vibe Survey: While positioning himself as the CM candidate, he highlighted the 47 per cent anti-incumbency, conveniently ignoring that it also reflects 53 per cent pro-incumbency, a strong figure for a government that’s been in power for nine years,” said a senior Congress leader in Kerala.

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Given that Kerala is one of the few states where the Emergency is still a live political memory, with large sections of the electorate having lived through it, the article’s uncompromising tone on Congress’s past has the potential to create new challenges at the regional level as well. Tharoor’s move to publish a searing critique of the Emergency without contextualizing or critiquing present-day concerns has put the Congress in a tricky spot.