In a life that ended too early, Sitaram Yechury’s contribution to the post-Emergency transformation of the Left and, in the process, to the discourse and practice of politics in India, was immense. Sita (as he was known to his friends) graduated from student to party politics, with experience of and lessons from the Emergency. He had realised the need to protect democracy. Sita was quickly absorbed into the discussions on the strategy and tactics of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) and the Left in an environment that had seen the erosion of single party dominance.
Over his political career, he held many crucial positions: President of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Student’s Union in its most celebrated years, president of the Student’s Federation of India, Central Committee and Politburo member, head of the International Department of the CPM, General Secretary of the CPM, editor of party’s weekly People’s Democracy and its theoretical journal Marxist, and Rajya Sabha member. There was so much more he was expected to contribute, but that was not to be.
Sita’s route to the CPM’s dominant decision-making bodies and then to being its General Secretary perhaps influenced both his political predilections and mode of functioning. While remaining loyal to his party and its ideals, Sita saw the need for flexibility in dealing with the democratic elements in the Indian political space. That perception was only strengthened when Indian politics took a turn towards authoritarianism in recent decades, with forces espousing a majoritarian agenda seeking to ensure a return to one party dominance. Making new allies and persuading them to accept a common minimum programme that embodies the principles and values of the Left appeared to be his overarching objective. In that endeavour, he put to use what he had learned from his experience as the party person-in-charge of international relations, with the successes and failures of the Left across the world providing material which shaped his views on what needed to be done in India.
Those responsibilities were indeed weighty. But in shouldering them, Sita brought to bear a personality that was very different from the commonplace caricatures of the organisational strongmen (and they were largely men) who led and managed communist parties. Affable to the extreme, with a boyish charm, a sense of humour, and a keen sense of the other, Sita could win himself a following both within and outside the party without having to throw his weight.
In the small class of students constituting the first MA batch (1973-75) of the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning at JNU, he was not just clearly the most brilliant but the one who made everyone smile. He combined those qualities with remarkable intelligence, amply reflected in the results of his academic career, which he gave up for the rough and tumble of politics, and a sharp memory, displayed when discussing matters varying from world and Indian history and communist traditions to Bollywood music and Sanskrit shlokas learnt as a child. These qualities helped shape his style as a communist leader, his ability to connect and relate personally to the party cadre, enquiring about and expressing concern about each member of the family, and being with them to empathise when circumstances warranted it.
When the party decided to send Sita to the Rajya Sabha, it became clear that his skills extended to being an exemplary parliamentarian, mastering the rules of the House, displaying his oratorical skills and winning allies in the many causes he chose to take up. Legend has it that given his charm and where he came from, the Treasury benches were often confused as to why a person with his skills was sitting in Opposition and rubbing shoulders with the Left.
Not surprisingly, having learnt from the skills that one of his mentors, former CPM General Secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet was known for, Sita became a force in shaping Opposition alliances. He was trusted as an impartial and independent participant, capable of understanding the compromises that each player can and must make. Such alliances are proving to be increasingly crucial for the sustenance of Indian democracy. He will, therefore, be greatly missed not just within the CPM and the Left, but in the wider political world.
And for us, his friends, he will be much missed as a person who changed and achieved so much in public life, but remained the same “Sita” in private.
The writer is a former professor of economics at JNU, Delhi
