Sitaram Yechury, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), passed away on Thursday at the AIIMS in Delhi following a prolonged illness. He was 72. Yechury had been in a critical condition for the last few days and was on respiratory support. An affable leader with cross-party political connections, Sitaram Yechury was among the most prominent Left leaders in the country, known as much for his sharp and knowledgeable parliamentary interventions as for the role in giving shape to pragmatic alliances to forge his party’s political objectives.
Yechury’s fluency in different languages was once a source of amusement for his fellow comrade, former West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu. In a 2010 article for the Telegraph, Yechury recalled a trip to China in the late 1980s with Basu and other prominent CPI(M) leaders, including EMS Namboodiripad, M Basavapunnaiah, and Harkishen Singh Surjeet. During one dinner, Yechury engaged in conversation with each leader in their native language: Hindi with Surjeet, Bengali with Basu, Telugu with Basavapunnaiah, and Tamil with Namboodiripad. As Yechury later recounted, Basu, chuckling, turned to him and said, “Sitaram, you are a very dangerous person. With each of us you speak in a different language. I do not know what tales you carry about us to each other!”
Yechury’s political career spanned decades. He joined the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in 1975 and quickly rose through the ranks, gaining recognition for his skills, knowledge, and articulate communication. He was among the leaders arrested during the Emergency. Born in Chennai on August 12, 1952, Yechury received his schooling in Hyderabad and later moved to Delhi for higher education. He studied at St Stephen’s College, Delhi University, and went on to pursue his post-graduation at JNU. A brilliant student, he excelled in his studies, earning first-class honors in both his undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in economics. Yechury’s passing is a significant loss to Indian politics, leaving a void in the Left movement. His legacy as a skilled political strategist, a champion of social justice, and a master of linguistic wit will be remembered for years to come.
