New Delhi:

NAME: Sitaram Yechury
AGE: 72

Sitaram Yechury, the fifth general secretary of the CPM, died on September 12, 2024, after a prolonged illness. He was admitted for days at Delhi’s All-India Institute of Medical Sciences after he had contracted a lung infection. He was mourned by scores of friends from all walks of life and political leaders across party lines.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi remembered the comrade as a “leading light of the Left”. Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi called him “a protector of the idea of India”.

QUALIFICATIONS

Sitaram Yechury, born in Chennai to a Telugu speaking family, had been a brilliant student, and achieved the all-India first rank in the Central Board of Secondary Education examinations. In 1973, he graduated with a first-class degree in Economics from Delhi’s St Stephen’s College.

For his Masters’ degree in Economics, he had enrolled at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), securing first-class honours again in 1975 and started working for his PhD. But his arrest during the Emergency prevented him from completing his degree.

POLITICAL JOURNEY

Sitaram Yechury’s association with Leftist thoughts go back to his student days in Jawaharlal Nehru University, where he was worked with the other key CPM leader, Prakash Karat, to build up a formidable Left bastion that still endures. Although an active member of the CPM’s student arm, the SFI (Students Federation Of India), his formal association with the party had started with his arrest.
In his early years, he was groomed by P Sundarayya and Harkishan Singh Surjeet. In 1984, he was elected the chief of SFI and was invited to the party’s Central Committee.

Four years later, he was elected to the party’s Central Secretariat in 1988 and to the Politburo in 1992 at the age of 40.

A three-time chief of the CPM, Yechury took over the reins of the party when Left fortunes were on the decline. He became the general secretary of the CPM at the 21st party Congress in Visakhapatnam on April 19, 2015, taking over from Prakash Karat at a time the party was down from 43 MPs in 2004 to nine in 2014. He was re-elected to the post in 2018, and 2022.

Yechury remained one of the most vocal critics of the Narendra Modi government and its liberal economic policies. During his 12-year tenure in the Rajya Sabha, he also became a powerful voice of the Opposition.

The former MP from Bengal also headed the party’s international department and was editor of the party organ “People’s Democracy” for two decades.

ACHIEVEMENTS

Over the last five decades, Yechury, a former Rajya Sabha MP from Bengal, left his imprint not just on the CPM but also the national political canvas — playing an active role in drawing up the Common Minimum Programme for the United Front government in 1996. 

Much like his mentor Harkishen Singh Surjeet, Yechury was the go-to person when it came to coalition politics. Surjeet was a key player during the coalition era during the National Front government of VP Singh – formed in 1989 – and the United Front government of 1996-97. The CPM had lent outside support to both.

Yechury, who took over that baton, was the go-to man in the UPA years from 2004-2014. Poles apart from his predecessor Prakash Karat, known for his hardline positions, Sitaram Yechury thrived on the challenges of coalition politics. This was made easier by his pragmatic nature, and the gift of making friends across the political spectrum. 

His command over as many as eight languages, including Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Bangla and Malayalam made him the most acceptable mediator for the non-BJP parties over the last one-and-a-half decades – the exception being Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress.

He was known for his ability to keep personal connections despite political differences, and had friends even in the BJP camp. An amiable and an eclectic conversationalist, his friends said he could hold forth on film songs as much as politics and flit easily between conversations on caste to history and economics.

Sitaram Yechury, along with senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, had drafted the common minimum programme of the Left Front-backed first United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in 2004.

In the run-up to this year’s Lok Sabha election, his alliance building skills worked again. CPM – which had refused to be in alliance with the Congress – became part of the Opposition INDIA bloc and Yechury remained one of its key faces.

CONTROVERSIES

In 1996, Sitaram Yechury had voted in favour of the CPM forming a multi-party coalition with former Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu as the Prime Minister. But the motion was defeated, with the opponent group being led by Prakash Karat and the United Front government led by HD Deve Gowda came to power. 

Ahead of the Indo-US nuclear deal too, the CPM Central Committee had rejected a proposal from Yechury that listed all the party’s objections with which the Congress was on board. The party, instead, went along with Prakash Karat’s suggestion to pull out support to the UPA government.

In 2015, Yechury had admitted that had the CPI-M withdrawn support from UPA-1 over public issues like jobs and income, it would have been acceptable to the people. But withdrawing support over the nuclear deal was something which the common people could not agree with. The party had to pay for it in 2009. Its seat count slid from 43 to 16, a drop of 27 seats.

At the state level, a seat sharing deal driven by him and Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya in 2016 had backfired, leading to a drop in the party’s score from 40 to 26 seats. The Congress had gained two seats, going up from 40 to 42 of the state’s 292 assembly seats.   

The same year, the Left-led LDA’s victory in Kerala over the Congress had given credence to Kerala leaders’ view that any alliance with the Congress was a risk to the party.

FAMILY

Yechury is survived by his wife, journalist Seema Chisti, the editor of The Wire, his daughter, Akhila, and son, Danish. In 2021, Yechury lost his eldest son, Ashish Yechury, to COVID-19.

(With agencies)
 

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New Delhi:

Polyglot, amiable and an eclectic conversationalist who could hold forth on film songs as much as politics, CPI-M’s fifth general secretary Sitaram Yechury was the pragmatic leader with friends across the political spectrum. The three-time party chief, who passed away on Thursday after prolonged illness at Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), took over the reins of the party when Left fortunes were on the decline. He was 72.

Quite unlike his predecessor Prakash Karat, from whom he took over in April 2015 and who was known for hardline positions, Mr Yechury thrived on the challenges of coalition politics. In this way, he was more akin to his mentor, the late party leader Harkishan Singh Surjeet.

While Surjeet was a key player in the coalition era during the National Front government of VP Singh – formed in 1989 – and the United Front government of 1996-97, both supported from outside by the CPI-M, Mr Yechury was the go to man in the UPA years from 2004-2014.

Mr Yechury, who was born in Chennai and studied at Delhi’s St Stephen’s College and Jawaharlal Nehru University, was a trusted ally of United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi in Manmohan Singh’s 10 years as prime minister.

He was the first non-Congress leader Gandhi called after she met then president APJ Abdul Kalam in 2004 when she turned down the post of prime minister and rallied for Singh.

Earlier, Mr Yechury, one of the Left’s most recognised faces, worked with Congress leader P Chidambaram to draft the common minimum programme for the United Front government.

It was an equation that survived the shock withdrawal of support by the Left to the UPA in 2008 over the Indo-US nuclear deal. Mr Yechury played an important role in the discussions with the UPA government on the issue.

Expressing his condolences, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh described him as an “unrepentant Marxist with a pragmatic streak, a pillar of the CPI(M), and a superb Parliamentarian”.

While his political colleagues remembered Mr Yechury the politician, old friends went down memory lane to remember their walks from Rafi Marg to Chanakya to watch films.

Mr Yechury, who famously loved old Hindi film songs, books and endless conversations on politics, was a Rajya Sabha MP for 12 years till 2017, remaining a powerful voice of the Opposition.

At the end of his tenure, he refused to take another term and said in his farewell speech in the Upper House that he came to Parliament “reluctantly”. As Left activists, they used to say it was better to stay far away from the “gol building” (the round building), he remarked.

Mr Yechury became general secretary of the CPI-M at the 21st party Congress in Visakhapatnam on April 19, 2015 , taking over from Karat at a time the party was down from 43 MPs in 2004 to nine in 2014. He was subsequently re-elected to the post in 2018, and 2022.

In an interview with PTI in 2015, after taking over as party general secretary, Mr Yechury said they should have withdrawn support on issues like price rise as the people could not be mobilised on the nuclear deal issue in the 2009 general elections. He was known for his strong and articulate speeches in Rajya Sabha on issues ranging from the plight of the farmers and the working classes to the government’s economic and foreign policies and the growing threat of communalism.

The CPI-M leader was fluent in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Bangla, and also Malayalam. He was also well-versed in Hindu mythology, and often used those references in his speeches especially to attack the BJP.

Mr Yechury remained one of the most vocal critics of the Narendra Modi government and its liberal economic policies.

His alliance-building skills came to use again for the Left in the run-up to the 2024 general elections. In 2018, ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the Central Committee of the CPI-M had rejected the proposal of having any understanding or alliance with Congress. Mr Yechury had then offered to resign as the general secretary.

However, in the run-up to the 2024 elections, as talks for a united opposition grouping started and opposition parties got together to form the INDIA bloc, CPI-M was part of it. Mr Yechury remained among the key faces of the alliance.

Though CPI-M was part of the INDIA bloc in the recent Lok Sabha polls, the Congress and communist parties fought separately in Kerala, the last remaining Left bastion where CPI-M won only one seat. However, being a part of the bloc helped the CPI-M and it won a seat in Rajasthan and two seats in Tamil Nadu, taking its total tally up to four, from three in the 17th Lok Sabha.

His journey in politics started with the Students’ Federation of India (SFI), which he joined in 1974 and became a member of the party the very next year. He was arrested a few months later during the Emergency.

After his release, Mr Yechury was elected president of the JNU Students’ Union thrice. In the SFI, he became the all-India joint secretary in 1978 and its president soon thereafter.

When he became SFI president in 1978, he was the first person who did not belong to either West Bengal or Kerala to occupy the post.

His rise in the party was swift. In 1985, he was elected to the Central Committee of the CPI-M and to the Politburo in 1992 at the age of 40 and then party chief in 2015. Born in a Telugu-speaking family in Chennai on August 12, 1952, Mr Yechury’s father Sarveswara Somayajula Yechury was an engineer in the Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation. His mother Kalpakam Yechury was a government officer.

He grew up in Hyderabad and his family moved to Delhi in 1969. A bright student, Mr Yechury achieved the all-India first rank in the Central Board of Secondary Education examinations and subsequently did his graduation in economics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi.

He did his post-graduation from Jawaharlal Nehru University again with a first-class, but could not complete his PhD due to his arrest during the Emergency after having remained underground for some time and organising resistance.

He also headed the party’s international department and was editor of the party organ ‘People’s Democracy’ for several years.

In a recent interview to PTI, Mr Yechury said the 2024 verdict was a setback for the BJP but also expressed concern over his party’s marginally improved performance.

He said serious introspection would be done on how to close the gap between its ability to launch struggles on the ground and its power to win seats.

Mr Yechury is survived by his wife Seema Chishti and his two children, Akhila and Danish. His elder son, Ashish Yechury, passed away due to Covid in 2021. Mr Yechury was earlier married to Indrani Mazumdar.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Veteran Left leader and CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury died this afternoon. He was 72 and was undergoing treatment for pneumonia at Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). The CPM leader was admitted to the emergency ward of AIIMS on August 19 and later shifted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). 

The AIIMS said in a statement that Mr Yechury died at 3.05 pm today. The family has donated his body to AIIMS for teaching and research purposes. His body will be at AIIMS for two days now and then shifted to AKG Bhavan, the CPM headquarters, so that his admirers and comrades can pay their respects. Later, the body will be shifted to AIIMS again.

Mr Yechury is survived by his wife and senior journalist Seema Chishti, daughter Akhila and son Daanish. His 34-year-old son, Ashish Yechury, died of Covid in 2021. 

A member of CPM’s top decision-making body Politburo for over three decades, Mr Yechury was a Rajya Sabha MP from 2005 to 2017.

An alumnus of Delhi’s St Stephen’s College and Jawaharlal Nehru University, Mr Yechury started his political career with the Students’ Federation of India and joined the CPIM in 1975. He was pursuing his doctorate in Economics from JNU when the Indira Gandhi government imposed the Emergency in 1975 and he was arrested along with many other leaders who would later play a key role in national politics. His PhD remained incomplete.

Mr Yechury was elected president of the JNU Student’s Union thrice in a year after he was out of jail. It was during this time that he also met Prakash Karat, who would remain a lifelong comrade.

In 1992, he was elected as a Politburo member. Four years later, he was among the leaders who played a key role in drafting a Common Minimum Programme for the United Front government. Mr Yechury also played a significant role in forging of the ruling coalition for the UPA government in 2004. The veteran leader had good relations with politicians cutting across party lines, making him one of the key leaders instrumental in forging alliances. More recently, he was one of the key leaders at the forefront when Opposition parties came together under the INDIA bloc. 

Our beloved comrade #SitaramYechury, General Secretary of CPI(M), passed away at AIIMS today.

Red Salute to Comrade Sitaram Yechury! pic.twitter.com/COrcQSuj3A

— CPI (M) (@cpimspeak) September 12, 2024

The CPM said in a post on X, “Our beloved comrade #SitaramYechury, General Secretary of CPI(M), passed away at AIIMS today. Red Salute to Comrade Sitaram Yechury!”

Expressing his condolences, Rahul Gandhi, Congress MP and Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, described him as a “friend” and a “protector of the Idea of India”. “Sitaram Yechury ji was a friend. A protector of the Idea of India with a deep understanding of our country. I will miss the long discussions we used to have. My sincere condolences to his family, friends, and followers in this hour of grief.”

Sitaram Yechury ji was a friend.

A protector of the Idea of India with a deep understanding of our country.

I will miss the long discussions we used to have. My sincere condolences to his family, friends, and followers in this hour of grief. pic.twitter.com/6GUuWdmHFj

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) September 12, 2024

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said he was “deeply saddened” by the passing of Sitaram Yechury. “His contributions to public life will always be remembered. Heartfelt condolences to his family and loved ones during this difficult time. Om Shanti,” Mr Gadkari said in a post on X.

Sad to know that Sri Sitaram Yechury has passed away. I knew the veteran parliamentarian that he was and his demise will be a loss for the national politics.

I express my condolences to his family, friends and colleagues.

— Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) September 12, 2024

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also expressed her condolences. “Sad to know that Sri Sitaram Yechury has passed away. I knew the veteran parliamentarian that he was and his demise will be a loss for the national politics. I express my condolences to his family, friends and colleagues,” she said in a post on X.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said the passing of Mr Yechury is very saddening. “May God grant peace to his soul and give his family members strength to bear this grief,” he said in a post on X.

New Delhi:

Communist Party of India (M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here on Monday after he complained of a high fever, sources said.

According to hospital sources, Sitaram Yechury was admitted in the emergency department of the hospital in the evening.

However, the exact nature of his ailment was not revealed by the hospital.

A source from the CPI(M) said he had gone for a checkup, and was admitted due to pneumonia.

The source added that he was undergoing treatment and he is fine.

“There is nothing serious, he has been admitted due to pneumonia,” the source said.

The CPI(M) leader had recently undergone a cataract surgery.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh.
| Photo Credit: SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA

Alleging that the Economic Survey tabled in Parliament on July 22 presented a “cherry-picked view” of the economy with “fudged” data, the Opposition parties criticised the government, saying the document once again shows that the BJP government is disconnected from reality. 

Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh pointed out that food inflation remains unchecked, at nearly 10% per year, with prices of specific foods growing at a rapid pace – cereals at 11%, vegetables at 15%, spices at 19% and milk at 7% – affecting the poor and the middle class. He further said that the “unplanned and unjustified” export ban and flood of cheap imports, as the survey points out, had a debilitating impact on farmer’s incomes. The micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) had been forced to shut down because of the rise of imports from China.

Mr. Ramesh said the Economic Survey virtually admits the failure of the Centre’s policymaking with regard to generating private investment. The survey, he said, concedes that “manufacturing sector employment creation has been subdued in the past decade”. 

“India is in its most precarious and difficult economic situation in many years. The Economic Survey might present a cherry-picked view of the economy, but we hope that tomorrow’s Budget faces up to the country’s realities,” the Congress leader said.

‘People’s woes continue’

The Left parties also slammed the Economic Survey, for presenting only a partial picture. CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury called it a “mega exercise in data fudging, obfuscating the truth.” “Neither our economic fundamentals nor tackling people’s woes like price rise, unemployment, hunger and poverty have shown any improvement. On the contrary it worsened,” he said in a post on X. 

CPI general secretary D. Raja said the Economic Survey has again shown that the BJP government is disconnected from reality. “Macro-level projections from the Economic Survey do not correspond to the ground. Feigning ignorance and citing lack of data on all important indicators, while singing praises of their rule, is the way of hoodwinking people,” Mr. Raja said in a post on X.