Sitaram Yechury, who served in the Rajya Sabha from 2005 to 2017, went against the grain to make sure the Upper House’s Parliament accomplished this.
The Lok Sabha had a green carpet, and the Rajya Sabha, housed in India’s historic Parliament building, which was still in operation last year, had a crimson one. This is because, in the words of Communist Party of India (Marxist) member Sitaram Yechury, “the Rajya Sabha must show it the red light if the Lok Sabha green-lights any faulty bill.”
Yechury was accustomed to standing up for what he thought was right, even if it meant voicing an opinion that wasn’t shared by his party. He passed away on Thursday at the age of 72 at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences following a respiratory tract infection. Yechury was the first CPI(M) chief to pass away while in office.
What Sitaram Yechuri did?
For example, in 2008, he said that the Left should not turn away from the United Progressive Alliance, a secular government. He maintained that the Left would be unable to take credit for its efforts if it were not for achievements like the Right to Information Act and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. The party’s decision to continue withholding support dealt a blow to moderates like Yechury.
Only one person visited Pranab Mukherjee’s office the day after Yechury, the Congress-led government’s victorious trust vote following the withdrawal of opposition.
He ascended through the ranks, beginning his political career as a student leader at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) (a famous picture of him reading out a charter of demands to Indira Gandhi during the Emergency and demanding her resignation exists). In 2015, he was appointed chief of the CPI(M). Under his leadership, the party formed the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) last year, its first pre-election alliance with the Congress and other opposition parties.
During his term, Kerala, a state that has had a new government every five years since 1981, saw the Left alliance win two straight assembly elections in 2016 and 2021. Amra Ram, a member of the CPI(M) parliament, was elected for the first time from Rajasthan in the national elections of 2024, despite the fact that the party and the larger Left bloc were unable to regain ground, especially in West Bengal, where they had ruled for 34 years. In Bengal, the party no longer holds assembly or Lok Sabha seats. In 2018, Tripura also lost power after 25 years. With 78 legislators, the CPI(M) now has four members in each of the Lok and Rajya Sabha.
Less Support
As the party came to an end, Sitaram was appointed general secretary. Left-leaning political analyst Dipten Raychowdhury stated, “The CPI(M) was full of bureaucrats instead of sharp political minds. The party’s intellectual base had eroded.”
Nevertheless, Yechury’s political influence persisted in spite of CPI(M)’s dwindling support. To the chagrin of many CPI(M) and Congress officials, he developed a close relationship with both former president of the Congress Sonia Gandhi and the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi. During a news conference, Congress politician Jairam Ramesh referred to Yechury as the “general secretary for Congress of CPI(M)” in jest. Sonia Gandhi chastised her colleague for making fun of Yechury.
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Friend Sitaram Yechury ji. a fierce defender of India’s concept and an expert on our nation. The lengthy conversations we used to have will be missed. Rahul wrote on X, “My deepest sympathies to his family, friends, and followers in this hour of grief.”
After meeting with President APJ Abdul Kalam in May 2004 before to the establishment of the Congress-led UPA administration, Yechury was the first non-Congress leader that Sonia Gandhi called. She asked him to arrange a meeting with CPI(M) chief Harkishen Singh Surjeet. She initially announced her intention to select Manmohan Singh for the position of prime minister during this meeting.
Yechury, who was also there, informed HT what transpired earlier this year. Feverish, Surjeet leaped from a cot and exclaimed, “Kya bol rahi hai tu [what are you saying?].” He then began contacting alliance leaders at her instruction in order to rally support for Manmohan Singh.
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Yechury was born in 1952 in what was then Madras. His family later relocated to Hyderabad and then Delhi, where he won the 1970 Central Board of School Education Class 12 exam. He possessed linguistic ability. Ye once travelled to China with Surjeet, Jyoti Basu, and two other leaders, P Rammurthy and M Basavapunnaiah. He spoke to Basu in Bengali, Rammurthy in Tamil, Surjeet in Hindi, and Basavapunnaiah in Kannada during breakfast. Basu then said, “This man [Yechury] is dangerous.” We were sitting there, but none of us can understand what he is saying to other people since he is speaking in four different languages.
He was an exceptionally talented learner who earned honours in both his undergraduate and graduate economics degrees. He became a leader of the Students Federation of India after becoming involved in the student movement at Jawaharlal Nehru University in 1974. In the course of two years, he was elected president of the JNU Students Union three times, according to a CPI(M) statement.
He continued on to study economics at JNU and St Stephen’s College, where he initially made the acquaintance of fellow communist Prakash Karat.
Members of the UPA-Left coordination committee, Yechury and Karat met frequently to resolve disagreements over the nuclear agreement between the US and India. Unlike the inflexible Karat, Yechury disapproved of the Left, which at one point accounted for 60 members of the 543-member Lok Sabha and was cutting ties with the Congress-led government.
He was no pushover, though.
Yechury was the first “outsider” to enter Srinagar on August 30, 2019, a few weeks after Article 370 was effectively repealed and J&K was divided into two Union territories. Yechury had a one-way ticket and the orders of the Supreme Court.
Shubhangi Gupta is a distinguished content writer and the visionary founder of The Unpleasant – Acha Nahi Sabse Sacha. With a Master’s degree in Commerce from University of Lucknow, Shubhangi has seamlessly blended her academic background with her passion for reading and writing, embarking on a successful career as a content writer since 2019.
