Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP Sitaram Yechuri (72) passed away at Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on 12 September after battling a month-long respiratory disease. He was being treated for acute respiratory tract infection at the hospital. The veteran politician who learned tricks of the trade from Harkishan Singh Surjeet, another seasoned Left leader, had a penchant for making national headlines. One might argue that it was not for the right reasons, nevertheless, he emerged as one of the nation’s prominent communist voices.
The communists infamously refer to religion as “opium” and while Yechury also had similar views, they were more pronounced in relation to Hinduism as he and his party like the rest of the communists dedicated their lives to maintain the faux “ganga-jamuna thezeeb” equilibrium through the denigration of Sanatan Dharma. With his refusal to accept the invitation to the opening of Ram Mandir and his reference to Hindus and their sacred epics Ramayana and Mahabharata as violent, Yechury repeatedly demonstrated his commitment to the secularism practised in India.
However, one shouldn’t presume that his quest to introduce “true secularism” was exclusive to India. As a real communist who is unaffected by national boundaries and aspires to expand his ideology to the rest of the world, Yechury began the task with India’s neighbour. He actually implemented Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “neighbours first” policy even before the latter gave the slogan and gained power at the centre.
Interestingly, he had decided to introduce communism to Nepal, the sole Hindu Rashtra in the world, rather than other neighbours of India where jihadi ideology is rife and minority groups, particularly Hindus, are being rapidly wiped out. The world’s only Hindu country became a ‘secular democracy’ after the rise of communism in the Himalayan country, and Yechury was among those who had initiated the process. Unsurprisingly, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) headed by the Congress party played a significant role in this crooked initiative along with its alliance partners of the Left.
Yechury brought ‘democracy’ to Nepal, had met his great Maoist friend Baburam Bhattarai at PM Manmohan Singh’s behest
The first open conference of the outlawed Nepalese political parties was held in 1990 at the home of Ganeshman Singh, the founding member of the Nepali Congress, and Chandra Shekhar was the one who organized the delegation of Indian politicians who participated in it. That was the beginning of the end for King Birendra. Afterwards, Sitaram Yechury and DP Tripathi of the Nationalist Congress Party apparently took on the mantle from him.
Yechury and Tripathi, who were student leaders at Jawahar Lal Nehru University (JNU), visited Maoist leader and former Nepalese prime minister Baburam Bhattarai who was also a student at the institution. While Yechury was able to leverage his influence with the Maoists, Tripathi was linked to the Nepali Congress and its splinter section led by Sher Bahadur Deuba, the Nepali Congress (Democratic).
More importantly, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reportedly asked Yechury to leverage his connections with Bhattarai. Tripathi was also acquainted with him and even had the benefit of knowing the leaders of the Nepali Congress. Yechury’s intervention facilitated the 12-point accord between the Maoists and Nepalese political parties. The four-point agenda was even known as the “Yechury formula” in the media.
“Nepal must embark on a new democratic path. The political process must not remain limited to restoring what was gained in 1990. This is important because it is this understanding that will bring the Maoists into the democratic mainstream,” an elated Yechury had expressed during his visit to the former Hindu monarchy in 2006. In 2005, Yechury and Tripathi founded the Nepal Democracy Solidarity Committee in India and worked with Rahul Barua of the South Asia Foundation.
According to Yechury, there was “an additional incentive” for India to support this procedure as he admitted, “This will have a salutary effect on the ultra-left in India. Revolutions today must factor in people’s yearning for democracy.” Yechury and Tripathi were invited to the country by Nepali Congress President Girija Prasad Koirala and also went to the reinstated parliament to thundering applause and a grand welcome from the Nepalese comrades.
Yechury who batted for the Maoists visited the country regularly as an interlocutor between them and the Seven-Party Alliance. He used to meet then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and former Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee before his departure. He also held several meetings then with now Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, alias Prachanda who is a veteran member of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre).
Sitaram Yechury, a member of the Polit Bureau, returned there in 2010 after he was instrumental in Nepal’s alleged second jana andolan (people’s movement) in 2006 to help political parties in the country forge consensus to discuss the peace process, the task of Constitution writing and the latest political developments. He also met with notable leaders including Nepali Congress president Girija Prasad Koirala, Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ and Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) chairman Jhalanath Khanal.
His efforts served as a preview of how desperate the Left and Yechury were to ensure that the borrowed political ideology of communism replaced the Hindu roots of the nation under the garb of democracy, of course with active assistance of the Congress. Their hatred of Hindu Rahtra as demonstrated by their various statements and actions even today was quite evident at the time as well.
Yechury and his overwhelming love for all things China
Yechury, to put it in simple words, like other communist leaders in India shared a profound love and deep affection for China. However, it shouldn’t come as a surprise because the communists sacked politburo member and Chief Minister of Kerala V S Achutanandan for suggesting that they should organise a blood donation camp for the Indian Army soldiers, during the 1962 India-Chian war. His statement was deemed anti-party and he was thrown out.
Yechury was always an outspoken critic of ‘atrocities’ committed against Indian Muslims and even claimed discrimination when there was none, however, he refused to even acknowledge the widely documented oppression endured by Uyghur Muslims at the hands of his ideological brethren. “These are problems that need to be properly resolved. Problems are everywhere,” is how he defined the brutality inflicted upon the Muslim minorities in China in an interview in January of this year.
“I think in the future, challenges such as economic development, social harmony and the fight against negative features will be met more effectively in China. The exemplary manner in which the PRC (People’s Republic of China) tackled and contained the Covid pandemic, reopened its society and economy with the requisite precautions and put back the economy on a growth trajectory, is a lesson for the world establishing its superiority of socialism as a system over capitalism,” he boasted as if though he belonged to the Communist Party of China rather than the CPI(M).
He added, “The efforts to eliminate inequalities and corruption, and raising the quality of life have put PRC on the path for achieving the centennial goal of building a ‘modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced and harmonious’ by 2049.” Yechury didn’t hold China accountable, of course, for spreading COVID-19 over the globe and concealing official death and patient data.
He made no mention of China’s harsh media regulations, its authoritarianism, the country’s expansionist policies, its meddling in India, or its support for Pakistan either. Yechury who relentlessly complained and exacerbated even minor issues in India, for some reason, appreciated everything that was anti-democratic and anti-secular in China. Maybe that is the reason China values ties with CPI(M). Furthermore, he penned a glowing review of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu before his execution in 1989. It appears that the parliamentarian wasn’t really concerned about human rights or freedom as much as he was about raising issues to score political points in the country.
Conclusion
Sitaram Yechuri succeeded Prakash Karat as the general secretary of the party in 2015. He worked relentlessly to further his political as well as ideological agenda. He was a loyal communist who put his party’s allegiance and ideology above all else. He never hesitated to voice his opposition to Santana Dharma, its culture, or India’s Hindu heritage. He was a shrewd politician, willing to act hypocritically when it served his interests. For all these attributes, the late Yechury will always be remembered in Indian political history and possibly in Nepal’s politics as well.
