New Delhi : Congress leader Manickam Tagore on Thursday appeared to aim a sharp but indirect dig at his party colleague Shashi Tharoor, questioning whether the Thiruvananthapuram MP was echoing the BJP’s narrative on the Emergency. Taking to X, Tagore wrote, “When a colleague starts repeating BJP lines word for word, you begin to wonder — is the Bird becoming a parrot? Mimicry is cute in birds, not in politics”. Though he did not name Tharoor directly, the target of his post was clear.
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, Tharoor wrote.
Tharoor also warned that the urge to concentrate power, suppress dissent, and sidestep constitutional checks could resurface in different ways. “Often, such tendencies may be justified in the name of national interest or stability. In this sense, the Emergency stands as a strong warning. The guardians of democracy must always remain vigilant, he added. Shashi Tharoor’s recent remarks on the India-Pakistan conflict and New Delhi’s diplomatic approach have stood out for not aligning with his party’s official line.
In a cryptic post on X last month, the Thiruvananthapuram MP shared a picture of a bird and wrote: “Don’t ask permission to fly. The wings are yours. And the sky belongs to no one”. The post was widely read as Tharoor’s subtle but firm rejoinder to critics within the Congress, a signal that he would chart his own course and not be tethered by the party’s internal constraints.
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