Congress Slams Shashi Tharoor Over Emergency Remarks, Accuses Him Of 'Repeating BJP Lines Word For Word'

Congress has taken a strong dig at party leader Shashi Tharoor following his recent comments on the "cruelty" inflicted on the poor during the 1975 Emergency under Indira Gandhi's regime.

(Photo: IANS)

Congress has taken a strong dig at party leader Shashi Tharoor following his recent remarks on the 1975 Emergency under Indira Gandhi's regime. 

Without directly naming him, Congress MP Manickam Tagore launched a pointed attack on Tharoor, accusing him of "repeating BJP lines word for word." 

In a post on 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."

Sharing similar sentiments, Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala criticized Tharoor, saying that a Member of Parliament and a member of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) cannot praise the Prime Minister, calling it inappropriate.

The latest barbs are flying after Tharoor, in his Op-ed in a leading daily on Thursday, highlighted how the Emergency exposed the ‘fragility and frailty’ of the institutions, even in a robust democracy like India.

“The vibrant cacophony of Indian public life, so accustomed to vigorous debate and free expression, had been replaced by an eerie silence. This reminded us that a government can lose its moral compass and sense of accountability to the people it purports to serve,” he wrote in an article.

Notably, the two Congress lawmakers - Tharoor and Tagore had an acrimonious exchange on social media, some time ago, over the ‘free bird’ pitch. Tharoor wrote about ‘birds not seeking permission to fly’, to which Tagore had replied with a metaphorical warning that ‘vultures and eagles are there in the sky to target the free bird’.

It is to be noted that there has been a growing unease and discomfort within the Congress party over Tharoor’s actions and remarks, often leaving the former embarrassed and making it 'dissociate and distance' itself from him, on a couple of occasions.

The fresh instance of Tharoor criticising the imposition of Emergency by the Indira Gandhi-led Congress government has further deepened the differences and disquiet within the party.

(With IANS Inputs)