Sitaram Yechury: The Left stalwart who defied Indira Gandhi and went on to become Rahul's friend

Communist leader Sitaram Yechury’s death has left a major void in Indian politics. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) general secretary passed away on Thursday (September 12) at the age of 72 after battling a severe lung infection.

His party has described his demise as a “grievous loss for the Left, democratic and secular forces”. Senior Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra have also condoled Yechury’s death, with the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha calling him a “friend”.

Let’s take a look at the soft-spoken Yechury’s political journey.

From Andhra to Delhi

Yechury was born on August 12, 1952 in Chennai into a Telugu-speaking Brahmin family. After completing his schooling in Hyderabad, he moved to Delhi for higher studies in 1969 as the Telangana agitation disrupted academic life, as per an Indian Express report.

Yechury, a Marxist, graduated in economics from Delhi’s St. Stephen’s College. He went on to join the newly established Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) for post-graduation.

It was in JNU that Yechury’s political career began. He became the president of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI), a left-wing student organisation, in 1974. With this, Yechury broke the tradition of SFI presidents coming only from Kerala or Bengal.

Yechury joined the CPI(M) the next year. The party was born out of a split in the Communist Party of India (CPI) in 1964 after several leaders left the parent party over differences on various issues.

Taking on Indira Gandhi

Yechury resisted Indira Gandhi’s Emergency due to which he also had to go into hiding and was later arrested.

Gandhi, who was defeated in the Lok Sabha election, continued to hold her post as the JNU Chancellor. Yechury led the university students to march to her residence in 1977. An iconic picture of the incident shows him reading out a list of grievances against her – a chargesheet – and demanding her resignation as Gandhi stands next to the firebrand student leader.

“There were 500 of us. Her aide told us that only five of us can go in to meet her. But when we insisted, she herself came out. We read out our resolution against her which was full of litanies, but she heard stoically. I handed over the resolution to her and she took it politely too. Couple of days later, she resigned,” Yechury recalled in an interview, as per The Hindu.

After the Emergency, he served as JNU Students’ Union president thrice between 1977 and 1978.

As per The Hindu, Yechury and his fellow Communist in JNU, Prakash Karat, played a pivotal role in making the university an “impregnable” Left bastion.

Rise in CPI(M)

In 1984, Yechury, a polyglot, became a special invitee to the CPI(M) Central Committee. Eight years later, he became the youngest member of the CPI(M) Politburo.

At the party congress of the CPI(M) in 1992, Yechury presented a resolution that said that the collapse of the Soviet Union and socialist countries of Eastern Europe did not invalidate Marxism-Leninism or the ideas of socialism, which has helped in uplifting the quality of human life and civilisation, as per the Indian Express report.

The CPI(M)’s electoral downfall began in 2009 when Karat was the general secretary. After the party’s best performance of 43 Lok Sabha seats in 2004, it was reduced to just 16 in 2009.

In 2015, Yechury replaced Karat as general secretary. However, the electoral fortunes of the CPI(M) have failed to improve despite a change in leadership. His party currently has only four seats in the Lok Sabha and a 1.76 per cent vote share. There are four CPI(M) MPs in Rajya Sabha and a total of 78 assembly members, reported Hindustan Times.

Yechury was elected CPI(M)’s general secretary for a third term in 2022. He had offered to resign in 2018 after his bid for allying with the Congress for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections was rejected by the CPI(M) Central Committee.

Yechury was a Rajya Sabha member from 2005 to 2017, with the party refusing to nominate him for a third term citing a two-term internal cap.

As the head of the international department of the CPI(M) for a long time, he was the “face” of the Indian Left to the world, as per Indian Express.

Advocate of ‘coalition politics’

Yechury, seen as a pragmatist, was in favour of joining hands with secular forces to avoid the splitting of anti-BJP votes.

His skills as a strategist often came to light during his nearly five-decade political career. He played a key role in forging an alliance to make the Janata Dal’s HD Deve Gowda the Prime Minister in 1996, as per Indian Express.

After the collapse of Deve Gowda’s government, Yechury helped in making IK Gujral his successor.

In 2004, the Left bloc offered outside support to the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government under the prime ministership of Manmohan Singh. However, the CPI(M)-led Left withdrew support from the government four years later over the Indo-US civil nuclear deal.

Rahul Gandhi’s ‘friend’

Yechury was an advocate of friendly ties between the CPI(M) and Congress. He is credited with the CPI(M) developing an electoral understanding with the Grand Old Party in Bengal.

The affable leader was close to Congress MPs Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi . Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh had joked in 2022 that Yechury was a two-in-one general secretary. “He is general secretary of the CPI(M) and general secretary of the Congress also. And sometimes… his influence in the Congress is more than in the CPI(M).”

Condoling the CPI(M) stalwart’s death, Gandhi wrote on X, “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.”

Yechury is survived by his wife Seema Chisti, the editor of The Wire, and his children Akhila and Danish.

With inputs from agencies