It’s left to him now to make it right for CPM

By KV Prasad

The advent of Sitaram Yechury as the general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) was something that was in waiting for the past decade, if not more. Way back in 2002, when Hyderabad hosted the party congress, speculation was rife that the toss-up for the top post was between Comrade Prakash Karat and Comrade Sitaram, both of whom had cut their teeth into Left politics from the same educational institution — the Students Federation of India at the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Of course, the change never happened then, as veteran Marxist Harkishan Singh Surjeet continued for one more term, relinquishing the responsibility three years later in favour of Karat. The rest is history.

The common link between Yechury and general secretaryship also lies in one of his mentors, Surjeet, while Karat spent much time imbibing the ideology from another veteran, EMS Namboodripad.  

The challenges

The election of 62-year-old Yechury at Visakhapatnam on April 19 brings to the fore another rare instance in the history of the communist movement in the country. It is for the only time after the 1964 split that two Telugu-speaking Comrades are at the helm of the CPI and CPM. Ironically, the undivided party that stood for a united Andhra Pradesh re-elected this March the genial Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy from Telangana as the general secretary, and Yechury, a Brahmin from Andhra Pradesh, heading the CPM. Chandra Rajeswara Rao (CPI) and Puchalapalli Sundarayya (CPM) were the first to occupy this office.

Unlike then, the challenges before the two leaders are different. The influence of Left parties is on the decline and their presence in Parliament and legislatures is at a level where making effective policy interventions are difficult, if not impossible.

It is here that the CPM hopes Yechury can bring in deep understanding of Marxist policies and dexterously mesh it with his vast experience of pragmatic politics. Having been an understudy of Surjeet, the new general secretary is expected to translate the party line into expanding the party, both in terms of its ideological acceptance and political presence in law-making chambers across the country.

An unbeaten grade

Yechury has had a brilliant academic background, right from his days in All Saints High School, Hyderabad, till the JNU, where his A++ grade in MA (economics) remains a record for students to attain. The pro-Telangana movement in 1969 forced a young Yechury to shift base to Delhi and stay with his maternal uncle Mohan Kanda, an IAS officer.

Soft-spoken, Yechury’s political leanings could not keep him away from being drawn to the Left, getting him in trouble during the Emergency. It is said his early flashes with politics made his uncle declare that any further stay by his nephew could mean that he may no longer remain in civil service.

His mother recently recounted in a Telugu daily that during the Emergency, Yechury was put in a lock-up close to their home, and one evening when the family went to enquire about his well-being, they found him seated on a bench, speaking to constables who were listening intently. 

Yechury was separated from his parents, Sarveswara Somayajulu Yechury, an engineer with the state transport corporation, and Kalpakam, his octogenarian mother who drives his car when she visits him in Delhi. The day the dutiful son foregoes the comfort of driving his car, Yechury can be seen travelling in the Metro, or hitching a ride with his journalist-wife Seema Chisti. 

At ease with written, spoken word

Yechury once told the Rajya Sabha that he was one of the first MPs to purchase the Metro card, and suggested that parliamentarians should be given a free pass so they are encouraged to use the public transport for commuting and contribute in saving energy. A sharp brain and multi-linguist is hidden in a person who is spotted at seminars and intellectual interactions and cultural events in posh-settings in a crumpled kurta and trousers, seamlessly fleeting across with ease.

A glimpse of his language skills was at display when while speaking in Visakhapatnam in English as the new general secretary, he switched to Hindi after being prompted by a new Politburo member and smoothly migrated to Telugu on demand from people there. Minutes later, he was giving reactions in Bangla to television channels.

A voracious and eclectic reader, Yechury has been, for years, editing the party organ “People’s Democracy” and would lock himself up in the office every Thursday to write the edit and clear pages. Even today, his room does not have an air-conditioner and like fellow comrades, he travels in a non-AC office Ambassador without any fuss.