Sitaram Yechury

Sitaram Yechury (12 August 1952 – 12 September 2024) was an Indian Marxist politician and the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), who was a member of the Politburo of the CPI(M) since 1992. Previously, he was a Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha, West Bengal, from 2005 to 2017.

Early life

Yechury was born on 12 August 1952 into a Telugu Brahmin family in Madras. His father Sarveswara Somayajula Yechury and mother Kalpakam Yechury were natives of Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh. His father was an engineer in the Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation. His mother was a government officer and lived in Kakinada till her death in 2021.

Yechury grew up in Hyderabad, and studied at the All Saints High School, Hyderabad, till his tenth standard. The Telangana agitation of 1969 brought him to Delhi. He joined Presidents Estate School, New Delhi, and achieved the All-India first rank in the Central Board of Secondary Education Higher Secondary Examination. Subsequently, he studied B.A. (Hons.) in Economics at St. Stephen's College, Delhi, and M.A. in Economics, from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), achieving first class in both. He joined the JNU for a Ph.D. in Economics, which was aborted with his arrest during The Emergency.

Political career

Yechury joined the Students' Federation of India (SFI) in 1974. A year later, he joined the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

Yechury was arrested in 1975 during the Emergency while he was still a student at JNU. He went underground for some time, organising resistance to the Emergency, before his arrest. After the Emergency, he was elected as the President of the JNU Students' Union thrice during one year (1977–78). Yechury, along with Prakash Karat, created a leftist unit at JNU.

In 1978, Yechury was elected as All-India Joint Secretary of SFI, and went on to become the All India President of SFI. He was the first president of SFI who was not from Kerala or Bengal. In 1984, he was elected to the Central Committee of the CPI(M). In 1985, the party constitution was modified, and a five-man central secretariat—Yechury, Prakash Karat, Sunil Moitra, P. Ramachandran and S. Ramachandran Pillai—was elected to work under the direction and control of the politburo. He left the SFI in 1986. He was then elected to the Politburo at the Fourteenth Congress in 1992 and as the fifth General Secretary of CPI(M) at the party's 21st party Congress in Visakhapatnam on 19 April 2015. He and politburo member S. Ramachandran Pillai were the frontrunners for the post but the former was unanimously chosen after Pillai chose to withdraw. He succeeded Prakash Karat, who had held the post for three consecutive terms, from 2005 to 2015. He was again re-elected as General Secretary of CPI(M) at the 22nd Party Congress held at Hyderabad in April 2018. He was elected for a third term as General Secretary of CPI(M) at the 23rd Party Congress held at Kannur, Kerala in April 2022.

Yechury was considered to uphold the coalition-building legacy of former general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet. He worked with P. Chidambaram to draft the common minimum program for the United Front government in 1996 and had actively pursued the coalition-building process during the formation of the United Progressive Alliance government in 2004 and Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance in 2023.

Yechury headed the party's international department, and the party used to depute him as fraternal delegate to the party conferences of most socialist countries. A prolific writer, he authored many books and wrote the fortnightly column ''Left Hand Drive'' for ''Hindustan Times'', a widely circulated daily. He edited party's fortnightly newspaper '' People's Democracy'' for 20 years.

Role in Rajya Sabha

Yechury was elected to Rajya Sabha from West Bengal in July 2005. He was known for bringing several popular issues to the notice of parliament and for raising questions on important issues. On blaming by the ruling party for frequent disruptions in parliament, he said that government cannot escape from its responsibility by blaming the opposition for frequent disruptions. He justified disruptions in parliament by calling it a legitimate process in a democracy.

During the negotiations for the Indo-US Nuclear Pact, Yechury listed in the Rajya Sabha all the conditions that the CPM required of the agreement. After the Manmohan Singh government satisfied all the conditions, he was overruled by Prakash Karat, who claimed that the agreement still violated the CPM's idea of independent foreign policy. It was said that this left Yechury "displeased and helpless".

On 3 March 2015 during parliament session, Yechury moved an amendment to President Pranab Mukherjee's address on the inaugural day of Parliament's budget session. This was passed by division of votes in Rajya Sabha, and it was an embarrassment to the Modi government. Parliamentary affairs minister Venkaiah Naidu stated that Yechury's concern had been noted and requested him to not go ahead with the amendment as this was not a convention. Yechury said normally he would accept such a request, but he was pressing for the amendment as the government left no choice as even after 14 hours of debate, opposition was denied opportunity to seek clarification on the Prime Minister's reply. This was the fourth time in Rajya Sabha's history that an amendment moved by the opposition to the motion of thanks to the President's address had been passed.

Views on United States

Yechury was a staunch critic of US foreign policy. He also criticised the visit of the US president Barack Obama as the chief guest of the 2015 Republic Day parade.

While blaming the US for rise of Islamic fundamentalism he said

He also blamed the US for its hegemonic attitude; he said

He was also a staunch critic of abrogation of article 370 and 35A in Jammu and Kashmir.

On 12 September 2020, he along with Yogendra Yadav and others was named in the supplementary chargesheet by Delhi Police for their alleged role in the 2020 Delhi riots over which Yechury responded that Bharatiya Janata Party was misusing its power to target the opposition.

Personal life

Yechury was married to journalist Seema Chishti, who is the editor of ''The Wire'', and formerly the Delhi editor of BBC Hindi Service. She was the Resident Editor of ''The Indian Express'', Delhi. Yechury said in a ScoopWhoop episode that his wife financially sustained him. He was married before, to Indrani Mazumdar, daughter of Vina Mazumdar, and has a daughter and a son from this marriage. His daughter, Akhila Yechury, is a major in history and teaches at the University of Edinburgh and University of St. Andrews. His son Ashish Yechury died on 22 April 2021 due to COVID-19, at the age of 34. Mohan Kanda IAS, former Chief Secretary of Andhra Pradesh, is Yechury's maternal uncle.

Illness and death

Yechury was admitted to the department of emergency medicine at AIIMS Delhi on 19 August 2024 and was put on respiratory support after his condition turned critical in September, according to a statement by the CPI(M). He displayed symptoms of a pneumonia-like chest infection and died on 12 September, at the age of 72, after suffering from an acute respiratory infection. His body was donated to AIIMS for teaching and research purposes by his family.

Works

Yechury authored the following books:

* ''What Is This Hindu Rashtra?: On Golwalkar's Fascistic Ideology and the Saffron Brigade's Practice'' (Frontline Publications, Hyderabad, 1993)
* ''Pseudo Hinduism Exposed: Saffron Brigade's Myths and Reality'' (Communist Party of India (Marxist), New Delhi, 1993)
* ''Caste and Class in Indian Politics Today'' (Prajasakti Book House, Hyderabad, 1997)
* ''Oil Pool Deficit Or Cesspool of Deceit'' (Communist Party of India (Marxist), New Delhi, 1997)
* ''Socialism in a Changing World'' (Prajasakti Book House, Hyderabad, 2008)
* Left Hand Drive: Concrete Analysis of Concrete Conditions (Prajasakti Book House, Hyderabad, 2012)
* ''Modi Government: New Surge of Communalism'' (Prajasakti Book House, Hyderabad, 2014)
* ''Communalism vs. Secularism''
* ''Ghrina Ki Rajniti'' (Vani Prakashan, New Delhi, 2006) (in Hindi)

Yechury edited the following books:

* ''People's Diary of Freedom Struggle'' (Communist Party of India (Marxist), New Delhi, 2008)
* ''The Great Revolt: A Left Appraisal'' (Communist Party of India (Marxist), New Delhi)
* ''Global Economic Crisis: A Marxist Perspective''

References

External links

Yechury's column in ''Hindustan Times''

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yechury, Sitaram
1952 births
2024 deaths
20th-century Indian non-fiction writers
21st-century Indian non-fiction writers
All Saints High School (Hyderabad) alumni
Anti-Americanism
Communist Party of India (Marxist) politicians from Andhra Pradesh
Deaths from pneumonia in India
Delhi University alumni
General secretaries of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
Indian male journalists
Indian Marxist journalists
Indian Marxist writers
Indian political writers
Jawaharlal Nehru University alumni
Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union
Journalists from Tamil Nadu
Members of the Politburo of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
Politicians from Chennai
Rajya Sabha members from West Bengal
St. Stephen's College, Delhi alumni
Students' Federation of India All India Presidents
Telugu politicians
Trade unionists from Tamil Nadu