Sitaram Yechury was the epitome of Jaques Derrida’s 'Deconstructed Marxism', which he propounded in his book the Specter of Marx. Derrida seeks to do the work of inheriting from Marx, not Communism, but a Marxist philosophy of responsibility, and of Marx's spirit of radical critique. Derrida underlines that the 'New International' is an untimely link, without status ... without coordination, without country, without national community, without co-citizenship, without common belonging to a class. The name of New International is given here to what calls to the friendship of an alliance without institution among those who ... continue to be inspired by the spirits of Marx or of Marxism.
Yechury was a committed Marxist but in political praxis; to use a term much propagated by Derrida, he favoured pragmatism over dogma. And like many pragmatic politicians of his generation, he was courteous and amiable, qualities that didn’t depend on which side of the aisle his interlocutor belonged to.
Sitaram Yechury straddled many identities. He was a Marxist, he was a polyglot who was at ease in highbrow academic circles but could very well explain the same theories in plainest of language to the person on the street, he spoke multiple tongues, he was a strategist who revelled in bringing disparate ideological strands together.
He was among the few leaders who didn’t ideologically over-analyse whether the party should ally with, earlier identified as communists’ chief adversary, to take on when the latter became a governing party under Vajpayee’s leadership.
During the 2024 campaign, he insisted Modi-led BJP should be taken on in state-by state contests, via alliances. An analysis partly borne out by results. Interestingly, CPM’s ideological purists still don’t formally acknowledge the party’s alliance with Congress, never mind that CPM is a part of INDIA bloc.
That Yechury, as a student politician, had forced Indira Gandhi to step down as JNU Chancellor made his later pragmatism even more noticeable. That he stayed away from Naxalites in 1970s, because that offshoot of Marxist politics declared loyalty to China’s communists, was another indication of his practical political sense. As he said in 2014, when Modi took office for the first time: “Conditions have changed, so our analysis and alignment accordingly will change”.
Telugu was his mother tongue. In the party forum and in meetings, he preferred English because he felt that political formulation came more easily to him in that language. But he gave public speeches in Hindi. During his two-term stint in the Rajya Sabha from Bengal, he spoke in Bengali during his conversations with Bengali journalists.
Yechury’s nature wasn't a later day political makeover. Even as a student activist he wasn't known for being overbearing or loudly declaratory. Engaging in debates was his style, and witty one-liners were his rhetorical signature. Many politicians, including communists, are given to ranting. Yechury never was. The other standout feature was unlike many fellow Marxists, he avoided jargon. Again, unlike doctrinaire Marxists, he was always interested in not just class but also social groups and religion.
Born to a Telugu Brahmin family, carrying the name of Sitaram, an irony, Yechury had refused to wear the sacred thread and chant slokas. He said he was the first communist in his family. But he didn’t discount philosophical debates embedded in the ancient religious texts. An open-mindedness that later helped him debate the Hindu Right. In fact, if he would have believed in God, he would be more near to Leszek Kołakowski the Marxist Polish philosopher who was a strong believer. Kołakowski was obsessed with Christianity. A Christian intrigued by Marxism. Kolakowski wrote in his three-volume history of Marxist philosophy Main Currents of Marxism (1976): “The absence of God, spells the ruin of man”.
Those who knew Yechury knows that one of the defining qualities of Sitaram as a politician was that he was more interested in finding commonalities than divergences between parties and groups. These attributes served him well in Parliament, where his articulation stood out as the general quality of parliamentary interventions worsened. When he ended his Rajya Sabha term in 2017, most felt the House would miss him. His third term was primarily blocked by Prakash Karat.
As the Left’s electoral footprint shrank, so did the national political importance of CPM leaders, including Yechury. The high point was between 2004 and 2008; from the time UPA-1 was formed till when CPM withdrew support to ’s govt over the Indo-US nuclear deal.
It’s rare for Indian politicians, including communists, to introspect publicly. But Yechury proved an exception when, after UPA-2 took office, he admitted that his party hadn’t been able to explain its stand on the nuclear deal to voters, who gave a Congress led coalition a healthy victory. He was perhaps the only politburo member to do so.
In the 2011 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election, the Left Front was defeated by the All India Trinamool Congress which won an absolute majority of seats. Losing Bengal to TMC dealt a blow to CPM and its leaders they haven't recovered from. Yechury, along with other CPM leaders, rarely made national headlines and Yechury as a representative of the common people lost ground.
I remember him from by college days. A mop of frizzy hair, like a ‘Jhul Jhara’ that placed him in a permanent Seventies, a boyish face that seemed to be built for laughter, eyes that were always smiling, a manner that was the very definition of amiable, speech that was erudite but easy, persuasive rather than offensive, smooth but always guided by no conviction. Of all the talk of revolution that swirled around, he must have been the gentlest apostle.
I personally came close to him sometimes in 2003 when I was working in alignment of the Chief Minister of West Bengal, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s dream to resurrect the industrialization in West Bengal and to get closed industries reopened. Working with the Government of West Bengal to reopen Jessop, I was introduced to him by then Chief Minister and exchanged letters on the progress. He carried his basic mantra of pragmatism to industrialization and advised that if it is for the interest of the working class there is no problem in sitting with the capitalists and working out a deal. Which is why everyone, even the fiercest antagonists, will recall Sitaram Yechury, the person, as much as what he stood for. With fondness and not a trace of rancour.
In the Condolence meeting at Netaji Indoor Stadium held for Comrade Buddadeb Bhattacharjee who passed away on 8 August 2024, which I attended, I was witness to Yechury’s last public message, the day he was shifted from the ICU to a general bed at AIIMS, Delhi. In the eulogy he pointed out the committed dedication of the Chief Minister to revive industrialisation in the state.
Yechury was dealing with a deeply personal tragedy when he fell ill. He lost his son Ashish to Covid in 2021. He was never quite the same after that, those close to him believed that the father in him was bereft. But it speaks of his abilities as a politician that the pragmatic communist in him soldiered on.
The student leader who read out a charter of demands to Indira Gandhi in 1977, captured in an iconic photograph, was to become a guide and mentor to many student politicians decades later. But with his death, he has left a lot of unfinished conversations.
Sitaram Yechury died on 12 September 2024.