Shashi Tharoor invokes Modi’s 2015 emergency remarks to hit ‘warfare’ security in Delhi, says Gen Z deserves better | Today’s news
Congress leader Shashi Tharoor hit out at the Narendra Modi-led Union government, alleging that Delhi witnessed a “war deployment” during the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protest on Saturday. Tharoor, a Member of Parliament, said GenZ deserved better than an “undeclared” emergency.
Tharoor also tagged Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2015 post about the Emergency, saying, “Thank you for teaching many of the same lessons to today’s youth, Modi!”
In a June 2015 post, Prime Minister Modi said how personally the Emergency brought back many memories. “As youngsters, we learned a lot during the anti-Emergency movement,” he said.
Quick answers to key questions
•5 QUESTIONS
Describing Delhi’s security deployment as “war-like”, Tharoor said Gen Z deserved better than what he called the “undeclared EmerGenZ”. He criticized checkpoints, barriers, detentions and internet suspensions.
Tharoor tagged Modi’s post in recalling the lessons of the anti-emergency movement. He used the reference to compare the authoritarian associations of the 1975–77 state of emergency with what he saw as restrictions on the political expression of young people.
The protest led by the CJP demanded the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. It was linked to critics’ concerns about a particularly intensive review of electoral rolls.
Police refused permission for the proposed Jantar Mantar demonstration, citing security considerations and procedural requirements. Authorities deployed police and paramilitary personnel, erected barriers and detained protesters.
Tharoor said the government should provide answers rather than use lathis and allow expression instead of repression. He argued that answering questions about the election could help restore public confidence and calm.
Read also | CJP Protest Day 2 LIVE: SC hearings, traffic curbs – what to expect today
In another post, Tharoor wrote: “As I said this morning, our GenZ deserves better than an undeclared EmerGenZ,”
The Emergency in India lasted for 21 months from 1975 to 1977, when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency across India, citing internal and external threats to the country. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other top BJP leaders have often used the Emergency to target the Congress party.
25 June 2025 marks 50 years since the declaration of Emergency in 1975. The Modi government marks the day as “Samvidhan Hatya Diwas” to remember the sacrifices and suspension of constitutional rights during the 21-month emergency period.
Combining ‘Emergency’ with ‘Gen Z’, Tharoor evoked authoritarian associations of the 1975–77 Emergency, while suggesting that young Indians today face restrictions on their political expression.
Thousands of people have been detained by the Delhi Police
Police in Delhi detained more than 4,000 protesters and leaders of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) on Saturday as security forces cordoned off parts of the capital to thwart a rally demanding the resignation of India’s election chief.
Thousands of police and paramilitary personnel were deployed across the city, mobile internet services were suspended in the central business district and dozens of metro stations and markets were closed as authorities stopped a demonstration organized by the CJP-led movement.
Read also | Delhi Metro Update: DMRC says entry and exit of all stations is now open
The protest was aimed at Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over the revision of electoral rolls, which critics say disproportionately benefits Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The movement planned to gather thousands of people at Jantar Mantar in central Delhi, but the area was cordoned off by security forces before the demonstration began.
Government should provide answers: Tharoor
In an earlier post, Tharoor said the government should provide answers, not lathis; expression, not repression.
Tharoor, who was in Berlin this week, said he returned to the capital after two in the morning and had rarely seen anything like what Delhi is witnessing now.
“Checkpoints every few hundred meters, concrete barriers and spike strips across our roads, ‘warfare’ deployment of 22,000 police and paramilitary troops across the city, 250 trains canceled and 45 metro stations closed and reports of young people being detained from their own homes and streets in and around Delhi,” X said.
“Most regressive (as well as repressive) is the suspension of internet in the heart of the national capital,” said the former Union minister.
He added that freedom of movement is completely restricted.
Jantar Mantar was designated precisely so that citizens could express dissent in central Delhi, and today even the roads leading to it have been declared off-limits, said the MP from Thiruvananthapuram.
“One is justified in asking where is this extraordinary manpower and urgency going when women in our capital need protection,” Tharoor said.
New Delhi: Police personnel detain protesters during a demonstration by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the electoral roll in Delhi, Saturday, October 10, 2026.(PTI)
A government that is convinced of the fairness of its elections would welcome questions about them, while a government that turns its capital into a fortress to avoid them will only deepen the very suspicions it is trying to suppress, he said.
“Government should provide answers, not lathis; expression, not repression,” Tharoor asserted.
The barricades will do nothing to restore confidence in the Election Commission, and the sooner it answers the public’s questions, the sooner calm will be restored, he said.
“The strength of a democracy is measured by how it treats those who question its functioning, and by that measure what we have seen today is utterly shameful and unconscionable,” Tharoor said.
Read also | ‘Not a small matter’: Tharoor on BRICS 2026 after summit on Chidambaram issues
The Jantar Mantar protest prompted heightened security in the state capital, with police keeping a tight vigil to prevent any breach of peace.
The Delhi Police refused the CJP to hold the proposed demonstration at Jantar Mantar, citing security considerations and procedural requirements.
