Sitaram Yechury passes away: From opposing Indira Gandhi to joining UPA – the comrade who bridged political aisles

Sitaram Yechury passes away: In April 2023, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar met communist party leader Sitaram Yechury at the CPI(M) headquarters in Delhi. After a brief meeting, the two leaders, part of a group, emerged from the iconic AK Gopalan Bhavan in National Capital's Gole Market only to be greeted by a battery of reporters.

“I have not seen so many people in this otherwise deserted building for decades,” quipped Yechury, the CPI(M) general secretary before briefing journalists about what transpired in the meeting.

Yechury, who passed away at 72 on Thursday after a brief illness, was arguably one of the prominent leaders behind stitching up an opposition alliance – INDIA bloc ahead of the Lok Sabha elections 2024.

Nitish Kumar was then meeting opposition leaders for an alliance against the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It’s another matter that Kumar eventually switched sides and joined the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) ahead of the 2024 general elections.

Yechury underwent treatment at AIIMS, New Delhi till his last breath on Thursday afternoon. He  is survived by his wife, Seema Chishti, daughter Akhila and son Daanish. His eldest son, Ashish Yechury, passed away due to COVID-19 in November 2021.

Many say Yechury was not a mass leader, yet he was known for winning friends and influencing people across the political aisle. CPI-M doesn’t have many leaders in Parliament, yet Yechury has remained a prominent opposition face for many years.

Friends across party lines

While his friendship with the Congress leaders is known, Yechury was a rare communist leader who was pally with BJP leaders too. In 2022, a photograph of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Yechury laughing together at an all-party meeting had become a thing on social media.

“He was also my friend with whom I had several interactions. I will always recall my interactions with him,” Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said in a post on X.

Yechury’s camaraderie across party lines is not new. He was a key figure in coalition-building efforts in national politics in the 1990s when different Janata factions came together to keep the Congress party out.

“With the passing away of Comrade Sitaram Yechury, India has lost a bridge that connected revolutionary vision to parliamentary politics, political theory to political practice, and the agenda of national politics to the last person,” said  Yogendra Yadav, the convenor of Bharat Jodo Abhiyan.

Early Life in JNU

Born on August 12, 1952, in the then-Madras, Yechury received his primary education in Hyderabad before shifting to Delhi in 1969. He completed his Bachelor's from Delhi University’s St Stephen’s College before joining Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) for his master's.

Soon, Yechury entered politics by joining the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) — the Left’s student wing – in 1974. A year later, he became member of CPI(M). He indulged in student politics at JNU when the veteran BJP leader late Arun Jaitley was a rising young leader of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).

Yechury gave up his plans to pursue a PhD and instead was part of the resistance movement against Emergency in 1975. Not many would know that he was among the first student leaders who demanded the resignation of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. He was arrested during the Emergency along with Jaitley and Prakash Karat, to name a few.

Yechury was elected as JNUSU president thrice between 1977-78 in the post-Emergency days. It was under his presidency that JNUSU forced Indira Gandhi to resign as the University’s chancellor in October 1977.

In 1978, Yechury became SFI’s All India Joint secretary.

CPI-M General Secretary in 2015

Many say that Yechury’s glory days were when he was a student leader in JNU. He shot to fame again in May 2004 by playing a key negotiating role when Left parties backed the first UPA government and pressured the Congress-led regime into policy-making.

He also played a critical role in the talks with the government on the Indo-US nuclear deal, which eventually became a reason for the Left parties to withdraw support to the UPA-I government under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Yechury, elected as the CPI-M general secretary in April 2015, was considered the inheritor of the legacy of late party leader Harkishan Singh Surjeet. Surjeet played a pivotal role in what many call the first coalition era of Indian politics during the National Front government of VP Singh and the United Front government of 1996-97. CPI-M supported from outside.

Yechury assumed the general secretary position at a time when the CPI-M was shrinking politically. It had lost its government in West Bengal in 2011. Today, the Left is only in power in one state -Kerala. It was also a time when the Opposition faced a setback in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, with CPI(M) winning only 9 seats, its weakest position since 1964.

Yechury was re-elected as CPI-M general secretary for a second term in 2018. He served as a Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament (MP) from 2005 to 2017.

Committed Marxist

Throughout his five-decade-long political career – from student leader to a Parliamentarian – Yechury remained steadfast in his commitment to Marxism-Leninism.

Many called him a link to the Left’s glorious past in Indian politics. “He believed deeply in Marxism but was often practical in his approach considering the changed political scenarios in the country,” said a CPI-M leader.

Yechury's last video on X was on August 22, in which he condoled with former West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. “It’s my loss that I was not able to physically attend this memorial meeting and pay my homage to Com. Buddhadev Bhattacharya,” he wrote on X.

As part of the INDIA bloc, Yechury was often at the side of Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge or Rahul Gandhi. His death will be a big loss to the INDIA bloc and beyond. “I will miss the long discussions we used to have. My sincere condolences to his family, friends, and followers in this hour of grief,” Rahul Gandhi said in a post on X.