Sitaram Yechury (born 12 August 1952) is an Indian

marxist Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialecti ...

politician and a leader of the

Communist Party of India (Marxist) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)/CPIM/CPM) is a Marxist–Leninist communist political party in India. It is the largest communist party of India in terms of membership and electoral seats and one of the na ...

. He is a member of the

Politburo of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) The Politburo or Polit Bureau is the highest body of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). The members of the Politburo are elected by the Central Committee in the immediate aftermath of a National Party Congress, which is held every three years ...

, the largest communist party in India.

Early life

Sitaram Yechury was born on 12 August 1952 in an Andhra

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode ...

-speaking family of

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

(Chennai). His father Sarveswara Somayajula Yechury was an engineer in the

Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) is the state-owned road transport corporation in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Its headquarters is located at NTR Administrative Block of RTC House in Pandit Nehru bus station of ...

."S.S. Yechury memorial office building opened"
''The Hindu''. 25 July 2011. Retrieved 21 April 2015. His mother Kalpakam Yechury was a government officer.Akshaya Mukul (21 April 2015)
"1969 Telangana agitation brought Sitaram Yechury to Delhi"
''Economic Times''. Retrieved 21 April 2015. He grew up in

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River, in the northern part of Southern Indi ...

and studied at 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 New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament Hous ...

and achieved the All-India first rank in the

Central Board of Secondary Education The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is a national level board of education in India for public and private schools, controlled and managed by the Government of India. Established in 1929 by a resolution of the government, the Board ...

Higher Secondary Examination. Subsequently, he studied B.A. (Hons.) in Economics at the

St. Stephen's College, Delhi St. Stephen's College is a constituent college of the University of Delhi, widely regarded as one of the oldest and most prestigious colleges for arts and sciences in India. It was established in 1881 by the Cambridge Mission to Delhi. The college ...

and M.A. in Economics, from

Jawaharlal Nehru University Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) is a public major research university located in New Delhi, India. It was established in 1969 and named after Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister. The university is known for leading faculties an ...

(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 The Students' Federation of India (abbreviated as SFI) is an Indian left-wing student organisation politically aligned to the ideologies of Independence, Democracy and Socialism. Currently, V. P. Sanu and Mayukh Biswas are elected as the All ...

(SFI) in 1974. A year later, he joined the

. 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, was instrumental in creating an impregnable leftist bastion 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) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)/CPIM/CPM) is a Marxist–Leninist communist political party in India. It is the largest communist party of India in terms of membership and electoral seats and one of the na ...

. In 1985, the party constitution was modified and a five-man central secretariat was elected, consisting of younger stalwarts - him,

Prakash Karat Prakash Karat (born 7 February 1948) is an Indian Communist politician. He was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) from 2005 to 2015. Education and early career Prakash Karat was born in Letpadan, Burma on 7 Februar ...

Sunil Moitra Sunil (सुनील) is a first name for males, often found in the South Asian community. The Sanskrit word ' means "dark", "very blue", and is also an epithet of Krishna. Notable people * Sunil (actor), Indian Telugu film actor * Sunil (d ...

P. Ramachandran P. Ramachandran (11 July 1921 – 23 May 2001) was an Indian politician and Member of the Legislative Assembly. In parliament he represented Tamil Nadu. He was also Governor of Kerala (1982–1988). In the assembly he was elected from Pe ...

and

S. Ramachandran Pillai S. Ramachandran Pillai (born 7 February 1938) is a communist politician from Kerala, India, Politburo member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). He was the former General Secretary of All India Kisan Sabha (Peasants Union) and Currentl ...

- to work under the direction and control of the politburo.Sreedhar Pillai (31 January 1989)
"Vote for continuity: 13th party congress of CPI(M) in Trivandrum one of the most significant in its history"
''India Today''. Retrieved 20 April 2015. He left the SFI in 1986. He was then elected to the

Politburo A politburo () or political bureau is the executive committee for communist parties. It is present in most former and existing communist states. Names The term "politburo" in English comes from the Russian ''Politbyuro'' (), itself a contracti ...

at the Fourteenth Congress in 1992 and as the fifth General Secretary of CPI(M) at the party's 21st party Congress in

Visakhapatnam , image_alt = , image_caption = From top, left to right: Visakhapatnam aerial view, Vizag seaport, Simhachalam Temple, Aerial view of Rushikonda Beach, Beach road, Novotel Visakhapatnam, INS Kursura submarine museu ...

on 19 April 2015. He and politburo member

were the frontrunners for the post but the former was unanimously chosen after Pillai chose to withdraw. He succeeded

, 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 during 18 April 2018 to 22 April 2018. Yechury is considered to uphold the coalition-building legacy of former general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet. He worked with P. Chidambaram to draft the common minimum programme for the

United Front A united front is an alliance of groups against their common enemies, figuratively evoking unification of previously separate geographic fronts and/or unification of previously separate armies into a front. The name often refers to a political ...

government in 1996 and had actively pursued the coalition-building process during the formation of the

United Progressive Alliance United Progressive Alliance (UPA) is a centre-left political alliance of predominantly left-leaning political parties in India. It was formed after the 2004 general election with support from left-leaning political parties when no single pa ...

government in 2004.Rajesh Ramachandran (20 April 2015)
"Sitaram Yechury: A fine combination of pleasant personality, interpersonal skills & flair for negotiation"
''Economic Times''. Retrieved 21 April 2015Anita Joshua (19 April 2015)
"Yechury has an unenviable task on hand"
''The Hindu''. Retrieved 21 April 2015 Yechury has 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 has authored many books and writes the fortnightly column ''Left Hand Drive'' for ''

Hindustan Times ''Hindustan Times'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper based in Delhi. It is the flagship publication of HT Media, an entity controlled by the KK Birla family, and is owned by Shobhana Bhartia. It was founded by Sunder Singh Ly ...

'', a widely circulated daily. He has edited party's fortnightly newspaper '' People's Democracy'' for the past 20 years.Saubhadra Chatterji (19 April 2015)
"From an activist to CPI-M general secretary: Sitaram Yechury's journey"
''Hindustan Times''. Retrieved 20 April 2015.

Role in Rajya Sabha

Yechury was elected to

Rajya Sabha The Rajya Sabha, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legislatures of the states and union territories using si ...

from

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fou ...

in July 2005. He is 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 justifies 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 Manmohan Singh (; born 26 September 1932) is an Indian politician, economist and statesman who served as the 13th prime minister of India from 2004 to 2014. He is also the third longest-serving prime minister after Jawaharlal Nehru and Indir ...

government satisfied all the conditions, he was overruled by

, who claimed that the agreement still violated the CPM's idea of "independent foreign policy". It is said that this left Yechury "displeased and helpless". On 3 March 2015 during parliament session, Yechury moved an amendment to President

Pranab Mukherjee Dr. Pranab Mukherjee (11 December 193531 August 2020) was an Indian politician and statesman who served as the 13th president of India from 2012 until 2017. In a political career spanning five decades, Mukherjee was a senior leader in the Indi ...

's address on the inaugural day of Parliament's budget session, which was passed by division of votes in

which brought huge embarrassment to the Modi government. Parliamentary affairs minister

Venkaiah Naidu Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu (born 1 July 1949) is an Indian politician who served as the 13th vice president of India from 2017 to 2022. He is the first Indian vice president born in independent India. He has also served as the minister of Hous ...

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 is a staunch critic of US foreign policy. He also criticised the visit of the US president

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...

Republic Day Republic Day is the name of a holiday in several countries to commemorate the day when they became republics. List January 1 January in Slovak Republic The day of creation of Slovak republic. A national holiday since 1993. Officially cal ...

. While blaming the US for rise of Islamic fundamentalism he said, "US military interventions in West Asia have created a situation of complete uncertainty. The military interventions have always given birth to the rise of fundamentalism, which we see today in the menace that has been created by the ISIS. They have given birth to such tendencies." He also blames the US for its hegemonic attitude, he said "Now, in their (US) quest for global hegemony, they are trying to capture the energy resources in the world. They are trying to control the entire process of the energy transfers or trade in the world. And for this reason, their military interventions has also continuing to deny the Palestinians their legitimate right to a homeland." He was also a staunch critic of abrogation of article 370 and 35A in Jammu and Kashmir.

Personal life

Yechury is married to journalist Seema Chisti, formerly the Delhi editor of BBC Hindi Service. She was the Resident Editor of

Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932. It is published in Mumbai by the Indian Express Group. In 1999, eight years after the group's founder Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, the group was split be ...

, Delhi. Yechury said in a

ScoopWhoop ScoopWhoop Media is an Indian digital media company based in New Delhi. It operates various online content verticals and serves as a news organisation featuring web series, documentaries and current affairs reporting with a focus on video ...

episode that his wife financially sustains 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 The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 1 ...

and

University of St. Andrews (Aien aristeuein) , motto_lang = grc , mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best , established = , type = Public research university Ancient university , endowment ...

. Mohan Kanda IAS, former Chief Secretary of Andhra Pradesh, is Yechury's maternal uncle. His son Ashish Yechury died on 22 April 2021 due to

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quick ...

, he was 34. On 12 September 2020, he along with

Yogendra Yadav Yogendra Yadav (born 5 September 1963) is an Indian activist, psephologist and politician whose primary interests are in the political and social sciences. He was a Senior Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Del ...

and others was named in the supplementary chargesheet by

Delhi Police The Delhi Police (DP) is the law enforcement agency for the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). Delhi Police comes under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Government of India. In 2015, sanctioned strength of Delhi ...

for their alleged role in

2020 Delhi riots The 2020 Delhi riots, or North East Delhi riots, were multiple waves of bloodshed, property destruction, and rioting in North East Delhi, beginning on 23 February 2020 and caused chiefly by Hindu mobs attacking Muslims. Of the 53 people kill ...

over which Yechury responded that BJP was misusing its power to target the opposition.

Books

Yechury has 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 has 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 Telugu people Living people St. Stephen's College, Delhi alumni Communist Party of India (Marxist) politicians Trade unionists from Tamil Nadu Indian political writers Jawaharlal Nehru University alumni Indian Marxist journalists Indian Marxist writers Politicians from Chennai Delhi University alumni Rajya Sabha members from West Bengal General Secretaries of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Indian male journalists 20th-century Indian non-fiction writers 21st-century Indian non-fiction writers Journalists from Tamil Nadu Anti-Americanism Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union Communist Party of India (Marxist) politicians from Andhra Pradesh Students' Federation of India All India Presidents Alumni of All Saints High School, Hyderabad