Within the galaxy of student leaders emerging from the 1970s’ churn in India to rise and lead major political parties for the next four decades, Sitaram Yechury was the intellectual lodestar.
His untimely demise on Thursday, at age 72, shall immensely sadden every Indian citizen committed to preserve and strengthen our secular, democratic republic and fight for a just society, free from exploitation.
Comrade Sitaram was a role model for generations of student activists. As a topper of an all-India board examination, a first-class graduate from Delhi’s St Stephen’s College and a first-class postgraduate in economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, he could have attained distinction as a professional academic, had he chosen that career. Yet, as the president of the JNU students’ union — elected thrice — and leader of the student resistance against the Emergency, he dedicated himself to the Communist cause and became a whole-time member of the CPI(M).
It was under his leadership that the Students’ Federation of India emerged as the leading Left-wing student organisation across many states in the country. For him, “study and struggle” was not merely a popular slogan for university wall graffiti, but a way of life, which he himself lived and inspired many others to pursue.
As a young leader working at the CPI(M)’s party centre in Delhi from the 1980s, Sitaram Yechury worked closely with many communist stalwarts and learnt from all of them. He imbibed a rare combination of erudition, inspired by the likes of B.T. Ranadive, P. Sundarayya and E.M.S. Namboodiripad, alongside statesmanship and the craft of coalition building, following Jyoti Basu and Harkishan Singh Surjeet.
The generation of leaders Comrade Sitaram led and represented had the difficult task of navigating the Communist party out of the ideological turmoil following the collapse of the USSR and surviving in an increasingly globalised world dominated by finance capital and Rightwing politics, where programmatic postulates of the party were often overwhelmed by everyday events as well as long-term developments.
Both as an ideologue and a practitioner of parliamentary politics, Sitaram Yechury attempted to seek answers outside orthodoxy and dogmatism. In the unfinished task of the Left’s revival in India, this would be his enduring legacy.
Comrade Sitaram was a firm believer in the ‘Idea of India’, which evolved through our freedom struggle and found expression in our secular and democratic Constitution. He never saw the revival of the Left in India as a project independent of the task of defending India’s constitutional order from the onslaught of majoritarian communalism, political authoritarianism and crony capitalism. He was among the principal architects of the INDIA coalition, which offered us hope in dark times. His bright and affable presence would be missed by the entire Opposition in the united battles that lie ahead.
Comrade Sitaram was also an unapologetic internationalist. His commitment to democracy and social justice extended beyond India’s borders, which would be fondly remembered by the people of Nepal, Cuba and Palestine. Always careful to distinguish between patriotism and chauvinism, he believed in India learning from others as much as in India teaching them.
Prasenjit Bose is an activist-economist
