🎭 Political Theatre | 50 years of Emergency and the Trump-ceasefire saga 2.0

Greetings readers,

A slew of events unfolded in the political arena this week, with US President Donald Trump effortlessly taking the center stage. Forced by his habit of taking credits, Trump “almost” took the credit for brokering a ceasefire between Israel and Iran too, after days of conflict.

Back home, Shashi Tharoor and his English-speaking skills dominated the headlines, with the Congress leader praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi post Operation Sindoor. The praise is not sitting right with his party leadership and speculations have emerged of Tharoor looking for alternatives with his newly found “wings”.

So bear with us as we unpack each of the significant political developments one by one in this week’s DH Political Theatre.

A Nobel ‘act’

After 12 days of air strikes on each other, and a cameo by the US–much like President Trump’s cameos in several TV shows and movies prior to him stepping into politics, Iran and Israel finally agreed to a ceasefire on Tuesday, albeit a fragile one.

Trump first declared a ceasefire between the two West Asian nations, hours after Iran fired missiles at the US military base in Qatar on Monday night. Trump later berated both sides for violating the ceasefire he had announced. While Iran said it would respect the truce if Israel did, Israel said it had refrained from further strikes.

Israel, in announcing it had agreed to Trump’s plan, said it had achieved all its military objectives.

However, prior to all this, Trump was probably just inches away from clinching the Nobel Peace Prize, when towing the lines of previous US Presidents, he decided to meddle in the Middle East and sent B-2 bombers to attack Iran’s nuclear sites.

While the damage incurred by Iran’s nuclear dreams cannot be ascertained clearly, the damage to Trump’s Nobel dreams is done and in his own words the award may once again end up in the hands of a 'liberal'.

Emergency 50-50

“The biggest flaw of democracy is that you can’t permanently take someone out of the picture. …What can you even call those High Court judges, who so promptly hand down verdicts against the government. They are all ungrateful.”

The above excerpt from Urdu and Hindi author Rahi Masoom Raza’s 1978 book Katra Bi Arzoo perfectly encapsulates the power of a democratic setup and why political leaders feel the need to trample upon it for extending their regime.

This year marked the 50th anniversary of the Emergency imposed by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on June 25, 1975.

One lesson that can be learned from the chapter of Emergency of Indian history is the perils of hero-worship.

On the occasion, Home Minister Amit Shah released a book titled The Emergency Diaries - Years that Forged a Leader, a compilation of Modi's experiences during the anti-Emergency movement.

The book describes how 25-year-old Modi distributed many newspapers published secretly in markets, among students and women, reminiscent of the times when the prime minister was probably not aversive to press conferences either.

In its futile attempts to justifying the reasons for the imposition of Emergency, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh shared a White Paper tabled in Parliament on July 21, 1975 saying the government had imposed Emergency to put democracy "back on the rails" and in the wake of activities of "fascist groups" in the country that crossed all permissible limits.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said an “undeclared emergency” has been prevailing in the country for the last 11 years, an accusation which did not sit well with the BJP leaders.

‘Saffron’...gives you wings?

“Don’t ask permission to fly. The wings are yours and the sky belongs to no one,” read a post on X by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor sometime after party chief Mallikarjun Kharge expressed displeasure with the Thiruvananthapuram MP’s praise for PM Modi.

Tharoor, in an article published in a leading newspaper on Monday, said Modi's energy, dynamism and willingness to engage remained a "prime asset" for India on the global stage but deserved greater backing. The article has elevated the uneasiness in the relationship between the Congress leadership and Tharoor.

Though Tharoor on Tuesday tried to clear the air around the issue and said that his article was not a sign of his "leaping to join" BJP and just a statement of national unity, it did not stop Congress leaders from questioning Tharoor’s conduct since he was chosen to be part of an all-party delegation on Operation Sindoor.

Congress’ Manickam Tagore even warned his Lok Sabha colleague that free birds should be aware of “hawks, vultures, and eagles” preying in the skies.

Whether the “free-spirited” Tharoor will stop by Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Marg and are BJP leaders secretly taking English speaking lessons, is still unclear.

Bypolls: A boost for AAP

BJP, AAP and Trinamool Congress retained their four sitting seats in the bypolls on Thursday while Congress snatched one held by a former Left-backed independent in Kerala, putting the ruling CPM-led Left Democratic Front on the backfoot.

AAP won its two sitting seats in Gujarat’s Visavadar and Punjab’s Ludhiana West while it was pushed a distant third in Gujarat’s Kadi, where the BJP retained the seat. Trinamool Congress won the Kaliganj seat while in Kerala’s Nilambur, Congress won with a convincing margin against the CPM.

Buoyed by the victory, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal told reporters that if the bypolls were semi-finals to 2027 elections then there will be a “typhoon in 2027.”

No mention of Pahalgam in SCO document

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday refused to sign the joint communique of the Shanghai Cooperation Organsation’s defence ministers meeting as the document neither mentioned the dastardly Pahalgam terrorist attack nor took into account India’s concerns on terror strikes emanating from Pakistan.

Because of India’s refusal, the SCO, which follows the principle of consensus, could not issue a joint statement after the two-day meeting at Qingdao, sending a strong message to Pakistan and its all-weather ally China, who are understood to be the main players behind making such a draft.

Kanhaiya, the twelfth man

Congress leader Kanhaiya Kumar accepted being "the twelfth man" in Bihar polls and said that he will contest the upcoming elections if the party tells him to.

Using a cricketing analogy, Kumar said that just like batting, bowling, and fielding are responsibilities that have to be fulfilled on the cricket field, fighting polls is also a responsibility in politics.

"If the captain tells me to sit outside and deliver drinks for those at the crease, I will do that. And if the captain tells me to, I will also pad up and bat," Kumar said.

He also said that there is no confusion or dispute in the 'Mahagathbandhan' over Tejashwi Yadav being the main face for the Bihar chief minister's post.

That is all about the political drama that unfolded this week. DH Political Theatre will come back again next week with more political advancements from around the world.

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DH Newsletters Team