Veteran CPM leader Sitaram Yechury passed away at the age of 72 after a prolonged illness on Thursday noon. He is survived by his Seema Chsiti
The CPM general secretary was in a critical condition for the last few days following lungs infection. He was under respiratory support at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi. Yechury was being treated in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for an acute respiratory tract infection.
He had been serving as the General Secretary of the CPI(M) since 2015. Yechury spent his formative years in Hyderabad and Delhi, where his political journey commenced during his college days. He actively participated in student movements, particularly during his time at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), where he emerged as a key figure in the Students’ Federation of India (SFI). His political activism during the Emergency (1975-77) further solidified his reputation as a staunch advocate for civil liberties and left-wing ideologies. He served as a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha for several terms. Sitaram Yechury, born on August 12, 1952, in Chennai, was a prominent figure in Indian politics.
Yechury was married to journalist Seema Chisti, who is the editor of The Wire, and formerly the Delhi editor of BBC Hindi Service.] She was the Resident Editor of Indian Express, Delhi. He was married before, to Indrani Mazumdarand has a daughter and a son from this marriage. His daughter, Akhila Yechury, is a major in history and teaches at the University of Edinburgh and University of St. Andrews. His son Ashish Yechury died on 22 April 2021 due to COVID-19, at the age of 34
Yechury joined the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) in 1974. A year later, he joined the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
Yechury was arrested in 1975 during the Emergency while he was still a student at JNU. He went underground for some time, organising resistance to the Emergency, before his arrest. After the Emergency, he was elected as the President of the JNU Students’ Union thrice during one year (1977–78).[11] Yechury, along with Prakash Karat, was instrumental in creating an impregnable leftist bastion at JNU.[12]
In 1978, Yechury was elected as All-India Joint Secretary of SFI, and went on to become the All India President of SFI. He was the first president of SFI who was not from Kerala or Bengal.In 1984, he was elected to the Central Committee of the CPI(M). In 1985, the party constitution was modified and a five-man central secretariat was elected, consisting of younger stalwarts – him, Prakash Karat, Sunil Moitra, P. Ramachandran and S. Ramachandran Pillai – to work under the direction and control of the politburo.He left the SFI in 1986. He was then elected to the Politburo at the Fourteenth Congress in 1992 and as the fifth General Secretary of CPI(M) at the party’s 21st party Congress in Visakhapatnam on 19 April 2015. He and politburo member S. Ramachandran Pillai were the frontrunners for the post but the former was unanimously chosen after Pillai chose to withdraw. He succeeded Prakash Karat, who had held the post for three consecutive terms, from 2005 to 2015. He was again re-elected as General Secretary of CPI(M) at the 22nd Party Congress held at Hyderabad during 18 April 2018 to 22 April 2018. He was elected for a third term as General Secretary of CPI(M) at the 23rd Party Congress held at Kannur, Kerala during 6 April 2022 to 10 April 2022
Yechury was considered to uphold the coalition-building legacy of former general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet. He worked with P. Chidambaram to draft the common minimum programme for the United Front government in 1996 and had actively pursued the coalition-building process during the formation of the United Progressive Alliance government in 2004. He has been playing a pivotal role in building a secular democratic pro-people government since the beginning of his political career. He has always fought for the fundamental rights of people and believes in “Unity in Diversity”. He has always raised his voice against violence.
Yechury has headed the party’s international department and the party used to depute him as fraternal delegate to the party conferences of most socialist countries. A prolific writer, he has authored many books and writes the fortnightly column Left Hand Drive for Hindustan Times, a widely circulated daily.[19] He has edited party’s fortnightly newspaper People’s Democracy for the past 20 years
