India of today not India of 1975: Shashi Tharoor criticises Emergency in op-ed

India Today

10-07-2025

In a hard-hitting op-ed criticising the Emergency, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said it showed how the erosion of freedom takes place and highlighted how the world remained unaware of a "horrifying litany of human-rights abuses".In the piece published by Project Syndicate, Tharoor said former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's authoritarian approach pushed public life into a state of fear and suppression. In the same breath, he emphasised that the India of today is "not the India of 1975".advertisementThe article comes at a time when the Thiruvananthapuram MP's rift with the Congress leadership has become pronounced following Tharoor's string of public endorsements of the government's policies.
"Indira Gandhi insisted that the Draconian measures were necessary: only a state of emergency could combat internal disorder and external threats, and bring discipline and efficiency to a chaotic country," Tharoor wrote.The Emergency, lasting for nearly two years - from June 1975 to March 1977, saw civil liberties suspended, and a brutal crackdown on Opposition leaders.The senior Congress leader also pointed out how essential democratic pillars were silenced and torture in detention and extrajudicial killings were rampant, giving a picture of the "dark realities" for those who dared to defy the regime.Tharoor said even the judiciary buckled under immense pressure, with the Supreme Court upholding the suspension of habeas corpus and citizens' right to liberty."Journalists, activists, and opposition leaders found themselves behind bars. The broad constitutional transgressions enabled a horrifying litany of human-rights abuses," he said.SCATHING REMARK ON SANJAY GANDHIReferring to Sanjay Gandhi, Tharoor was equally scathing, terming his actions during the Emergency as "acts of unspeakable cruelty"."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," the Congress MP wrote.Tharoor underscored that "unchecked power" had become tyrannical, even though these acts were later downplayed as "unfortunate excesses"."The silencing of dissent, the curtailment of fundamental rights to assemble, write, and speak freely, and the blatant contempt for constitutional norms left an indelible scar on India's polity," he further said.LESSONS FROM EMERGENCYTharoor also listed lessons learnt from the Emergency, while taking a subtle dig at the ruling Narendra Modi-led government."First, freedom of information and an independent press are of paramount importance... Second, democracies depend on an independent judiciary able and willing to serve as a bulwark against executive overreach," he said."The third lesson - perhaps the most pertinent in our current political climate - is that an overweening executive, backed by a legislative majority, can pose a grave danger to democracy, especially when that executive is convinced of its own infallibility and impatient with the checks and balances that are essential to democratic systems," Tharoor wrote.- EndsMust Watch