Four Gandhis, one voice: Supreme Court order on stray dogs in Delhi-NCR draws rare unity

IN a rarefied demo of political unanimity, quartet members of the indira nehru gandhi fellowship – Rahul Gandhi, his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, their cousin Varun Gandhi and his mother Maneka Gandhi – have expressed their concerns over the Supreme Court’s directive to remove stray dogs from the streets of Delhi-NCR.Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday called the order a “step back from decades of humane, science-backed policy”.In a post on X, the Congress leader said, “Blanket removals are cruel, shortsighted and strip us of compassion.”“These voiceless souls are not ‘problems’ to be erased,” Rahul Gandhi wrote, adding, “Shelters, sterilisation, vaccination and community care can keep streets safe — without cruelty… We can ensure public safety and animal welfare go hand in hand.”Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said, “The moving of all the city’s stray dogs to shelters within a matter of weeks is going to result in horrendously inhumane treatment of them. Enough shelters do not even exist to take them on.”“Dogs are the most beautiful creatures who do not deserve this kind of cruelty,” she said, adding that animals in urban areas are already subjected to ill treatment.“Surely there is a better way to manage the situation and a humane way can be found in which these innocent animals are looked after and kept safe as well.”Former BJP Lok Sabha MP Varun Gandhi described the apex court directive “institutionalisation of cruelty” and “a harbinger of a legal structure that seeks to punish those who cannot fend for themselves”.“How long before this extends to stray cows, the underprivileged and unauthorised settlements… Nations face deeper moral crises when they step away from empathy,” he posted on X.Former Union minister and animal rights activist Maneka Gandhi called the order “impractical”, “financially unviable” and “potentially harmful” to the region’s ecological balance.“This judgment is a suo motu case, which means nobody complained; the judge took it up on his own… Now, if this order is to be followed, it would mean rounding up three lakh dogs in Delhi and placing them in centres,” she said, estimating the need for “1,000–2,000 centres” and costs of “at least ₹4–5 crore” to comply. She also claimed the order was based on a report that incorrectly linked a child’s death to a dog attack.A bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan noted that there was an “extremely grim” situation due to stray dog bites resulting in rabies, particularly among children.The issue has sparked an intense debate, especially on social media, with those supporting the apex court's Monday directive citing the risk of rabies and inconvenience caused to residents by stray dogs, while the critics are calling it impractical and inhumane.