Shashi Tharoor Targets Nehru-Gandhi Family, Urges Legal Reforms to End Dynastic Politics

Thiruvananthapuram: Senior Congress leader and MP Shashi Tharoor has openly criticized the Nehru-Gandhi family in an article published in the Malayalam daily Mangalam. Writing in strong language, Tharoor took aim at figures from Jawaharlal Nehru to Priyanka Gandhi, questioning the influence of the family over Indian politics.
The article begins by noting that the Nehru-Gandhi family, including India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, current opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, has had its influence deeply intertwined with India’s freedom struggle. Tharoor claims, however, that this influence has entrenched the idea that political leadership is a birthright, a notion he says has spread across all parties, regions, and levels of politics in India.
Tharoor argues that giving precedence to family lineage over experience lowers the standard of political leadership. He points out that in many cases, a candidate’s main qualification is simply their family name, and these leaders often fail to engage effectively with the electorate. Those maintaining dynastic control, he adds, are rarely accountable to voters when their performance is poor. Tharoor calls for a system that values merit over family connections and insists that legal reforms are necessary to end dynastic politics.
Tharoor’s article comes at a time when the BJP has been repeatedly using Congress’s dynastic politics as a political weapon, and through his article, Tharoor seeks to justify his criticism of the concentration of power within the Nehru-Gandhi family. In recent months, he has courted controversy within the party by both praising Modi and criticizing Congress’s dynastic practices. His writings on the excesses during the Emergency stirred debate within Congress, and his positions on issues like Operation Sindoor, including praise for Modi and the central government, created further confusion within the party. Tharoor was even included by the central government in a team tasked with explaining Operation Sindoor to foreign countries. He also surprised the party by contesting the Congress presidency, even after Mallikarjun Kharge was nominated as the candidate.