- Shashi Tharoor criticised Emergency excesses, including forced vasectomies
- Congress whip Manickam Tagore used an avian analogy to take a dig at Mr Tharoor, without naming him
- “Mimicry is cute in birds, not in politics,” Mr Tagore wrote.
Shashi Tharoor's article on the Emergency, which is the latest flashpoint between him and the Congress, has prompted a dig from a party colleague, who used an avian analogy to get his message across without naming anybody.
The Emergency has become a hot-button issue in Indian politics, especially since the BJP-led government at the Centre began marking June 25 as 'Samvidhan Hatya Divas' to mark the day it was imposed. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and several other leaders have been speaking out against the Emergency, calling it the darkest period in Independent India's history and using it to attack the Congress.
Eyebrows were, thus, raised when Mr Tharoor, who is the Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram, wrote an article on the Emergency in the media non-profit Project Syndicate and said the "excesses" during the period were "downplayed". The article also included criticism of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's son, Sanjay Gandhi, and the forced vasectomy campaigns.
Mr Tharoor has been seen as moving increasingly closer to the BJP, especially after his support for Operation Sindoor, which was India's response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, and his praise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Mr Tharoor also went against his party and led an outreach delegation to five nations, including the US, to convey India's stand that it will adopt a zero-tolerance policy to terrorism, earning praise from the PM and BJP leaders.
This perceived closeness was used to take a jibe at Mr Tharoor - without naming him - by Manickam Tagore, the party's whip in the Lok Sabha.
"When a Colleague starts repeating BJP lines word for word, you begin to wonder - is the Bird becoming a parrot?" Mr Tagore wrote on X.
"Mimicry is cute in birds, not in politics," he added.
'Unchecked Power'
In the article, Mr Tharoor said some of the government's actions during the Emergency reflected "unspeakable cruelty".
"In fact, the quest for "discipline" and "order" often translated into unspeakable cruelty, exemplified by the forced vasectomy campaigns led by (Indira) Gandhi's son, Sanjay, and concentrated in poorer and rural areas, where coercion and violence were used to meet arbitrary targets. Slum demolitions, carried out with ruthless efficiency in urban centres like New Delhi, rendered thousands homeless, with little to no concern for their welfare," Mr Tharoor wrote.
"These acts were later downplayed as unfortunate excesses. And some might point out that, in the Emergency's immediate aftermath, there was a fleeting sense of order imposed, a temporary respite from the unruliness of democratic politics. But the violence was a direct consequence of a system where unchecked power had become tyrannical, and whatever order the Emergency delivered came at a very high price: the soul of our republic," the MP added.
