Sitaram Yechury
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
A profile
The Times of India, April 20, 2015
Akshaya Mukul
1969 Telangana agitation brought Sitaram to Delhi
Yechury belongs to coastal Andhra Pradesh but has been a votary of united Andhra and was anointed general secretary in his home state.
Son of an engineer father and government officer mother, Yechury , known for his networking skills and friends across parties, was the first president of Students Federation of India who was not from Bengal or Kerala. The Telangana agitation of 1969 brought him to Delhi where he completed his school education and stayed on. Academically bright his record in economics in JNU was unbroken for many years Yechury went to St Stephens College in Delhi University . But it was in JNU that Yechury cut his teeth in politics, first in SFI and then CPM. During Emergency , he went underground and was arrested but after it was lifted, he became JNU students' Union president thrice between 1977 and 1978.
His rise in CPM was swift.He came to the central committee in 1985 and to the politburo in 1992. One of the first tasks entrusted to him in CC was to look after the party's international relations. A protégé of Sundarraya and Surjeet, Yechury was also close to party ideologue Makineni Basavapunnaiah. Groomed as the party's public face, Yechury played a key role during the United Front government and UPA-1 regime.
One quality that has stood Yechury in good stead and contributed to his affable persona is his ability to retain friendships even with excomrades who are generally frowned upon by the party and shunned socially . His many JNU friends who were in SFI with him and subsequently moved away ideologically are still good friends with him. Another quality is his felicity with languages, be it Bangla, Hindi, Telugu, Tamil and even a smattering of Malayalam.
Well-versed with Hindu mythology and world history , Yechury has often used this knowledge to his advantage in the Parliament, especially in putting BJP on the mat. Into his second term in Rajya Sabha, Yechury has become the party's main asset in Parliament whose voice is taken seriously . Only recently , he was the prime mover of seeking a division on amendments to the presidential address that was won by the united opposition.
Eclectic in his reading habits, Yechury can enthrall with his range -be it a book like `Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea' or `Musicophilia' or plain murder mystery . His daughter Akhila Yechury is a historian and teaches in Edinburgh University . Married to journalist Seema Chisti, he also has two sons.
1
Sep 13, 2024: The Times of India
Yechury, CPM general secretary when he passed away, rose through the ranks, starting as a student activist in JNU. A 1977 photo of him reading a students’ resolution to Indira Gandhi, demanding she quit as JNU chancellor, has gained iconic status, partly since Mrs Gandhi did resign. Decades later, Yechury was to closely interact with Sonia Gandhi, as one of the pivotal CPM politicians during UPA-1. That the communist party decided to help Congress form a coalition govt after the 2004 general elections, was thanks in no small measure to Yechury’s pragmatism. His thesis that alliance with Congress, for years called the principal class enemy by CPM hardliners, was necessary to take on BJP, has proved durable. CPM is part of the INDIA bloc.
Yechury, born in Chennai to a Telugu Brahmin family, was, in his words, the family’s “first communist”. He was also probably the most articulate of all CPM leaders, a quality that made him the best-known communist in Delhi’s political and media circles.
Sitaram Yechury (72), whose communist beliefs sat comfortably with affability and political practicality, breathed his last on Thursday at AIIMS. The hospital said Yechury was admitted with pneumonia. His family donated his body to the hospital for research and training. TNN
