4 min readNew DelhiMar 20, 2026 01:48 AM IST
CONGRESS MP Shashi Tharoor on Thursday said Parliament should be used much more as a forum for discussion than one for disruption and added that his was a “rare view” in today’s Opposition.
Tharoor was speaking at the release of the book Guardians of the Republic, written by former law minister Ashwani Kumar, at a discussion moderated by political scientist Neera Chandhoke.
In response to some of his co-panelists pointing out that bulldozer action on houses was being undertaken despite a Supreme Court ruling against such demolitions, Tharoor recalled an example from the US where the President had refused to implement a ruling of the Supreme Court. He said the implementability of the Supreme Court’s decisions always depends on the Executive’s will and the people’s pressure on the Executive.
Participating in the discussion, Ashwani Kumar said the prestige of judges depends not upon what they say but what they do with what they say. Human dignity is at the core of our democracy, the Constitution and also the freedom struggle, Kumar said, adding that a society was judged by the justice it was able to serve.
He said rulers could not find excuses and the question of leadership was at the heart of the matter.
Earlier, quoting from Kumar’s book — “no democracy can sustain if power becomes concentrated, that it depends as much on vigilance as on design” — Tharoor said the book brings about the importance of dissent in a democracy.
He asserted that the deficit of principled leadership around the world is a danger, and not just a strain on institutions. “A republic is not sustained just by institutions but by the values that animated them,” Tharoor said regarding Kumar’s argument in his book. He made no reference to the Congress or the BJP in his speech.
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Political scientist and activist Yogendra Yadav said the word republic is a deep one, adding that it is insufficient to say that the Constitution is being challenged. “It is our Republic that we are losing in the last 10 years,” Yadav said.
He commended Kumar on the balance and non-partisanship in his tone, and the hope it retains. He added that in the present times, it was necessary to take sides, as the only way to describe what happened in Gaza was genocide. He underlined that what was happening in Iran right now was dismantling of the world order.
He wondered how bulldozer action was being taken despite the Supreme Court ruling against it, adding that what made the apex court angry were “three words in a textbook”.
Yadav said it is possible we as a society have not been able to provide a simple language to make liberal values meaningful for common Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs.
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Columnist Gurcharan Das, another panelist, said his problem was that he could not vote either for the BJP — “as it is making our liberal traditions illiberal” — or Rahul Gandhi.
He said another matter of concern was the pendency of 50 million cases, with most people in prison as undertrials.
Chandhoke wondered why former JNU students Sharjeel Imam and Umar Khalid were being denied bail for years without a trial.
While acknowledging a delegitimisation of dissent, Tharoor said the very fact that Chandhoke could still speak critically showed that there was still room for dissent.
