Hyderabad, Sept.12 (NSS): CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury passed away at the age of 72 today. He was undergoing treatment for a lung infection at AIIMS in Delhi for the past few weeks and breathed his last after his health condition deteriorated.
Yechury was an economist, social activist and columnist. He has been a member of the party’s politburo since 1992. He was a member of the Rajya Sabha from 2005 to 2017. Sitaram Yechury was born on August 12, 1952 in Madras (now Chennai) in a Telugu family. His father Sarveswara Somayajula Yechury was an engineer with the Andhra Pradesh State Road Corporation. His Mother Kalpakam Yechury was a government official. He is nephew of former Andhra Pradesh C S Mohan Kanda.
Yechury’s childhood was spent in Hyderabad. He completed his matriculation from All-Saints High School in the city. Later, he went to Delhi and joined the President’s Estate School. In 1970, he became an all-India ranker in the CBSE Higher Secondary examination. He completed his BA in Economics from the famous St Stephen’s College. He holds an MA degree from JNU. He joined the PHD but could not continue it as he was arrested during the Emergency period. Sitaram’s first wife was Indrani Majumdar. He was married to journalist Seema Chisthi for the second time. He had three children.
Sitaram Yechury started his political career in 1974 as a student leader of SMI. In 1975, he joined the CPM when he was a student of JNU. He was one of those arrested during the Emergency. He was elected president of the JNU Students’ Union thrice. He along with former CPM general secretary Prakash Karat turned JNU into a Left bastion. He served as general secretary and president of SSII. In 1984, he joined the CPM Central Committee. In 1992, he was elected as a member of the party’s politburo. In 2005, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha for the first time from West Bengal. In 2015, he was unanimously elected as the party’s fifth general secretary at the 21st CPM Congress held in Visakhapatnam. He has been in that position since then.
He raised his voice on people’s issues and other issues. Sitaram Yechury is recognized in the Upper House of Parliament. In 1996, he was involved in drafting the ‘Common Minimum Programme’ for the United Front government along with former union minister P. Chidambaram. In 2004, he was instrumental in the formation of the UPA coalition government. He wrote columns for an English magazine titled ‘Left Hand Drive’. He has written books like ‘Cast and Class in Indian Politics Today’, ‘Socialism in the Changing World’, ‘Modi Government: New Surge of Communalism’ and ‘Communalism vs. Secularism’.
