Sitaram Yechury: An affable comrade who played peacemaker in Kerala

Sitaram Yechury, a respected CPI(M) leader known for his intellect and diplomacy, played a crucial role in party politics.

In 2016, soon after the CPI(M) and the Left Democratic Front coasted to victory in the Kerala Assembly elections, riding primarily on the popularity of veteran leader V.S. Achuthanandan, a crisis of immense proportions loomed over the win.

The party chose to elect the then State secretary, Pinarayi Vijayan, to helm the new government, contrary to the wishes of Mr. Achuthanandan, who was in his early 90s at the time. Sitaram Yechury, the party general secretary, assuaged the veteran leader’s hurt sentiments by describing him as “the Fidel Castro” of the party in Kerala. This helped ease tensions.

Sitaram, as he was fondly called by his party comrades, had a reputation for being affable to a fault. In arguments, he never lost his cool, nor did he reject a critical or even uncharitable question.

He chose to respond to sneering remarks with a smile — a quality that helped him become one of the architects of the INDIA bloc involving the Congress, even when the Kerala unit of his party abhorred the idea.

Mr. Yechury acted as the bridge that linked warring factions in the party and with democratic forces outside of it.

His intellectual brilliance shone bright from his college days, says M.A. Baby, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member, who had worked with Mr. Yechury from the late 1970s.

“As editor of Student Struggle, which became a magazine when its office was moved to Delhi, he got it redesigned and commissioned scholarly articles on many things, including the theory of relativity. He asked me to interview Cuban filmmaker Tomas Alea for the magazine. B.T. Ranadive used to observe his work closely with appreciation,” says Mr. Baby.