By glossing over the present ‘undeclared’ Emergency and fixating on 1975, Shashi Tharoor risks legitimising the very authoritarianism he claims to warn against.
The Timing and the Intent: Who Benefits from This “Reminder”?
On July 10, 2025, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor published an article in Deepika recalling the 1975 Emergency. While his observations rightly condemned the draconian measures taken during that period, the timing and tone of his piece raise significant questions.
Why, at a time when the Modi-led BJP government has suffered a clear electoral setback in the 2024 general elections, is a senior Congress leader choosing to focus on a 50-year-old aberration instead of the ongoing democratic backsliding since 2014?
Tharoor’s article parrots the narrative being aggressively pushed by the BJP—that the Emergency is the original sin of Indian democracy. This conveniently diverts attention from the real-time erosion of constitutional values under the Modi regime. In doing so, he lends weight to the BJP’s revisionist framing of history, despite being a Congress Working Committee member.
Emergency 1975: A Dark Chapter, But a Closed One
Let us be clear: the Emergency (1975–77) was a deeply authoritarian episode. Sanjay Gandhi’s forced sterilisation drives, demolition of slums, curbing of press freedoms, and suspension of civil liberties are rightfully condemned across the political spectrum. But it was also a declared Emergency—constitutional, limited in duration, and ended by the will of the people.
•Indira Gandhi accepted her electoral defeat in 1977.
•She apologised multiple times between 1977–78.
•Rajiv Gandhi, Dr. Manmohan Singh, and even Rahul Gandhi have publicly regretted the episode.
•The Congress was punished, and later democratically reinstated.
Compare this to the present: Who is apologising for the lynchings, the hate speeches, the surveillance, the chilling of dissent, and the state-sponsored trolls?
2014–2025: The Undeclared Emergency No One Wants to Name
The so-called defenders of democracy today remain blind to the authoritarianism of the past 11 years. What Tharoor failed to mention—and what many seasoned citizens are now beginning to document—is the creeping, insidious nature of the undeclared Emergency since 2014.
Here’s a factual juxtaposition between the declared Emergency of 1975–77 and the undeclared Emergency under Modi:
Emergency 1975–77 Undeclared Emergency 2014–25
No lynchings of minorities Widespread mob lynchings, especially of Muslims
No hate crime epidemic Surge in communal hate crimes, often under state patronage
No majoritarian Hindutva agenda Bulldozer justice, anti-conversion laws, cow vigilantism
No targeted killing of journalists Gauri Lankesh, Narendra Dabholkar, MM Kalburgi, Govind Pansare
No moral policing or dietary surveillance Attacks on beef eaters, bans on food, vigilante violence
No criminalisation of dissent UAPA and sedition cases against students, activists, journalists
No internet shutdowns World’s highest number of shutdowns, especially in J&K
No surveillance of citizens Pegasus spyware on journalists, opposition, civil society
No hate from the ruling party’s IT Cell BJP IT Cell’s coordinated campaigns of hate, abuse, and lies
No systemic weakening of institutions ECI, CBI, ED, NIA – all allegedly used for political gain
No paper leaks NEET and NET leaks, with youth trust shattered
No crony capitalism of current scale Adani and Ambani’s disproportionate gains; Rafale secrecy
RSS and the Emergency: Tharoor’s Convenient Omission
Tharoor refers to Sanjay Gandhi’s misdeeds, but fails to mention an inconvenient historical truth: the RSS itself, banned during the Emergency, sought accommodation with Indira Gandhi.
Balasaheb Deoras, then RSS chief, wrote two letters to Mrs. Gandhi in 1975, supporting her 20-point programme. Their motive? To get the ban on the RSS lifted.
Contrast that with Congress leaders, communists, and civil rights activists who faced imprisonment with courage. Tharoor’s silence on the RSS’s opportunism seems strategic—an olive branch, perhaps, to the BJP?
Is Tharoor Playing to the Gallery?
Tharoor’s political positioning has increasingly appeared calculated. He:
•Flirted with the idea of contesting the Congress presidency despite opposition from the party high command.
•Enjoys popularity among urban upper-middle-class voters, many of whom now lean towards the BJP.
•Frequently attends literature festivals and platforms where right-wing thought leaders are dominant.
•Has publicly praised Prime Minister Modi’s oratory, though couched in academic nuance.
Is this article a subtle audition for broader acceptability in a post-Congress political space? By criticising the Emergency in isolation and ignoring Modi’s authoritarianism, Tharoor risks aligning with the very regime he once critiqued.
Weaponizing 1975 to Whitewash 2025: A BJP Strategy
The BJP’s sudden obsession with the Emergency in 2025 is not accidental. Having lost the majority in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections (BJP: 240, INDIA bloc: 233), they’re desperate to reclaim moral authority and delegitimise the opposition.
Shashi Tharoor’s article lands like a perfectly timed assist. It reinforces the BJP’s narrative that the Congress can never be trusted with democracy. But what about BJP’s own record since 2014?
Let us not forget:
•Dissent is criminalised.
•Elections are influenced, not free.
•Civil society is throttled.
•Opposition leaders are jailed or raided routinely.
•Parliament functions without real debate.
If Emergency was a “dark chapter,” then the present is a lengthy novel of slow suffocation.
Public Memory vs Political Amnesia
Generations who lived through 1975 and are now experiencing 2014–25 are not easily fooled. For all the horrors of 1975, what we are witnessing today is a more deeply embedded culture of fear, majoritarianism, and state impunity.
Shashi Tharoor, the historian and author, should know better. By failing to contextualise the Emergency within current realities, he does disservice to both truth and the cause of democracy.
Truth Must Be Whole, Not Halved
Tharoor’s article rightly calls the Emergency a lesson. But what lesson are we learning if we don’t apply it to the present? History is not a museum piece; it’s a mirror. If you condemn the past but excuse the present, you’re not warning against authoritarianism—you’re enabling it.
India today doesn’t just need reminders of 1975. It needs courage to name and confront 2025’s undeclared Emergency. The real guardians of democracy must speak out—not selectively, but comprehensively. Shashi Tharoor’s silence on today’s excesses speaks louder than his words on 1975.
And silence, in the face of tyranny, is not neutrality. It is complicity.
Hasnain Naqvi is a former member of the history faculty at St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai
