The demise of Sitaram Yechury, an outstanding Communist leader, has come as a deep shock to the Leftist movement. In CPIM circles. He has been a household name for the past two decades, during which time he mostly towered over other red leaders even as his JNU colleague Prakash Karat remained as another important figure in the CPIM. His death due to pneumonia came after weeks of hospitalization during which hopes about an improvement in his health were fading. He leaves behind a vacuum which would be difficult to fill for the party. Those like Karat are around but are past the 75 age limit the party has informally set for senior hands holding positions.
Yechuri’s main strength was his communication and PR skills, which he effectively used in spreading the party’s messages through the English media and in maintaining good relations with the leaderships of non-BJP political establishments, mainly the Congress. He was often seen as an adviser to Sonia Gandhi during times of tough political challenges to the grand old party. His organisational skills were questionable though. The party under his stewardship lost its support base heavily across states, principally in West Bengal and Tripura. Except in Kerala, the party is now near zero and competed with NOTA in polls in the northern Hindi belt, the mainstay of national politics. In his own Telugu states, the party under him could make no headway also as regional satraps ruled the roost there. Yechury’s advocacy of Secularism as a political creed was an outstanding feature of his public pushes. Yet, he and the Left gained little from such campaigns, as was reflected in the voting trends even in Muslim dominated areas where the party put up candidates. The Modi era in politics ran parallel to Yechury’s leadership of the CPIM – a time when the Hindutva campaign gained a lot of steam and undercut the Left prospects across even states where it once held a substantial base.
What should not go unnoticed about Yechury is his clean image. Though he never held power other than in his role as Rajya Sabha member, he headed a political establishment that ran governments. Yet, all along, he retained an image that was without blemish as a politician and party leader. Causes were important to him and he was never ready for compromise vis-a-vis his convictions. In today’s politics, Yechury and several of his comrades have been a rare phenomenon by virtue of their clean public life. The decision by his family to donate the senior leader’s body to AIIMS, New Delhi, for research and teaching purposes is in keeping with his great sense of social commitment. His memory of a selfless politician will live on.
