Congress MP Shashi Tharoor strongly criticized the Transgender Persons Amendment Bill 2026. On Sunday, he shared his opinion on the information related to the proceedings of Parliament by sharing a post on the social media platform ‘X’. He made two posts one after the other, in which he mentioned ‘Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Bill, 2026’.
Transgender bill called a fundamental reversal
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said in X Post, ‘I will miss Parliament due to the ongoing assembly elections in Kerala, yet I am keeping an eye on the reports of legislative developments happening there. I am very concerned about the ‘Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Bill, 2026′ introduced in the Lok Sabha. It was introduced very secretly and without proper consultation with the concerned parties. This Bill appears to be a fundamental reversal of the rights-based framework established after the Supreme Court’s landmark NALSA (2014) judgment.’
Questions raised on the provisions of the bill
He said that these amendments have removed Section 4(2) of the 2019 Act, which guaranteed the right to decide one’s gender identity based on one’s own understanding. In its place, a system has now been introduced in which verification from the Medical Board and certificate from government officials will be required before the identity can be recognized. In effect, the government will now decide who a citizen considers himself to be—an interference that is inconsistent with the constitutional promise of dignity and individual liberty.
‘Limited the definition of transgender person’
Shashi Tharoor further said that equally worrying is the excessive limiting of the definition of ‘transgender person’. There is a risk that trans-men, trans-women, non-binary and gender-diverse people, who were previously recognized under the law, may now be left out of this scope. Also, it limits gender identity only to biological characteristics or to some selected socio-cultural categories. The bill makes it mandatory to report gender-affirming surgeries to the authorities. This raises serious privacy concerns and raises the possibility that the government could create a register of people’s highly personal medical decisions—which is difficult to reconcile with the Supreme Court’s Puttaswamy judgment on the right to privacy.
Taken together, he added, these provisions threaten to render a large section of India’s transgender community, which has historically faced extreme marginalization, once again legally invisible. At the very least, any Bill with such far-reaching consequences should be referred to a Standing Committee for proper scrutiny. We can only hope that ultimately logic and constitutional morality will prevail over this extremely regressive proposal.
‘The schemes should reach the real beneficiaries’
Shashi Tharoor, Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, in another Yet, when the scope of eligibility is narrowed, there is a risk that many genuine beneficiaries will be left out. How can security reach those who are not recognized by the law?
He further said that instead of strengthening safeguards—such as employment rights, reservations, access to health services and protection of transgender children—the focus seems to be on tightening eligibility checks rather than expanding assistance. This is the exact opposite of what many of us have long been advocating. This also includes the ‘Private Member’s Bill’ introduced by me in 2024 on this subject.
Shashi Tharoor said what is needed is expansion of rights, meaningful consultation with transgender communities, stronger social protection measures, and policy steps like ‘horizontal reservation’. Transgender persons are also citizens and entitled to equal rights. Any law that weakens this principle fails to fulfill the promise of our Constitution.