India has lost an extremely important voice in CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechury. A popular political figure, his passing has left a void that will not be easily filled. Both in the Left Front that is struggling to survive, and the larger Opposition politics where he as an individual acted as a bridge between the emerging Congress party, the Left and the regional parties. His smiling persona laced with a quick wit that drew smiles even from his opponents was able to thaw the hardest positions, and allow leaders to converse and reach a consensus over and over again.
Yechury played a dynamic role in Left politics right from the moment he became the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union President decades ago. He established the students union as a strong, independent body, and had never looked back since. A strong orator in Parliament, an influential politburo member in the CPI-M, he rose to the highest position in the party even though he was unable to save it from electoral debacles in Tripura and West Bengal. He was a communist, and yet did not portray himself as a rigid ideologue committed to a hard doctrine. This made him popular with the other political leaders in an environment of coalition politics, and hence gave him a status that many others lacked.
He was very close to Congress president Sonia Gandhi who relied on him for advice and strategy. He retained this with Rahul Gandhi and was an accepted and well liked person in the Gandhi household. His loss will be felt by the CPI)M) and the Congress as he was able to bridge the political gap between the two despite the face off in Kerala, and the pressure from Mamata Banerjee and the Trinamul Congress in West Bengal. Yechury was able to manage egos, did not like unnecessary confrontation, and preferred a quick backroom chat to ease relations and strengthen ties.
The outpouring of grief from all sides, peoples, politicians, journalists is an indication of Yechury’s reach and popularity. He was always very easy with the media,and rarely got bad press. Journalists liked his humour, and accessibility wherein he answered every question, and laughed away those he was not interested in responding to. Yet, he was extremely serious about his politics, and always demonstrated the courage to speak his mind. He took up cudgels for the working class, the oppressed and the victimised and at every turn Yechury was present to stand up for the tenets of democracy that he so believed in. Everyone in mourning today has a story about him, his personal touch, his compassion, his wit that often camouflaged a steely belief in freedoms and rights.
Yechury was young, just 72 years old, and much needed in these days of turbulence strife. He was the iron who pressed away the wrinkles of opposition disunity, and used his proximity to the Congress leadership to the advantage of a larger alliance. The CPI(M) will have a hard time finding someone big enough to fit the legacy he has left behind, with his life of struggle ending with the donation of his body to the All India Medical Institute for research. A warrior till the very end.