Sitaram Yechury, 72, General Secretary of CPI(M), died on 12 September, 2024, after a brief illness. Global tributes reflect his influential statesmanship beyond his party's scope.
Published Sep 15, 2024 | 8:00 PM ⚊ Updated Sep 15, 2024 | 9:03 PM
Sitaram Yechury.
“The bourgeois Parliament, even the most democratic in the most democratic republic; in which the property and rule of capitalists are preserved, is a machine for the suppression of the working millions by small groups of exploiters. The socialist fighters for the emancipation of the working people from exploitation had to utilise the bourgeois Parliament as a platform, as a base for propaganda, agitation and organisation as long as our struggle was confined to the framework of the bourgeois system” (Letter to Workers of Europe and America, Lenin, Collected Works, vol 28, p 432).
“Prior to the capture of political power by the proletariat, it was obligatory (necessary) to make use of bourgeois democracy, parliamentarianism in particular, for the political education and organisation of the working masses…”(Draft Programme of the RCP (B), Lenin Collected Works, vol. 29, p 106)
Sitaram Yechury (72) — who served as the General Secretary of CPI(M) till he breathed his last — popularly known as Comrade Sitaram passed away on 12 September, 2024 after a short time of illness.
Obituaries and memoirs poured in from different parts of the world itself is an acknowledgement of his statesmanship beyond the range and influence of CPI(M).
One aspect of his life and work that deserves proper attention and analysis is his role as an astute parliamentarian.
The work of Sitaram Yechury as a Member of the Rajya Sabha for two terms is guided by the above-referred principles of Leninism.
Like any other multifaceted and equally talented personality, as a rule, he would always be busy.
“I am busy” is the general refrain for any social/political worker working even at the lowest rung of the ladder. This refrain often helps us to escape from our responsibilities. But this was not the case with Sitaram.
I used to get a lot of requests from various forums, and party committees who insisted on advance confirmation of the date for their proposed meetings.
But Sitaram kept making them wait till the last few days. The idea behind keeping them waiting was the uncertainty of events and developments that might warrant his presence and intervention. Despite being so busy, one would be astonished if one knew the quantum of work he put up in Parliament.
To mention a few, Sitaram Yechury as a member of Rajyasabha created history by delivering 244 speeches and interventions, despite not being the leader of the Opposition or leader of the House.
In parliamentary practice, it is an unwritten rule that the leader of the house and leader of the opposition get n number of opportunities to intervene. However, for an ordinary member such opportunity is generally a privilege.
Defying this rule, Sitaram Yechury, without holding any position, delivered 244 talks in Rajya Sabha. If carefully considered, an all time record in Indian parliamentary history.
He marked about 87 percent attendance in the sessions which is way higher than the national average for any member of the Parliament.
Of these 244 speeches, the most important speeches were selected and published in book form by Navatelangana Publication House in Hyderabad, during the party’s All India Conference in Hyderabad in 2018.
This was also the fastest ever publication of such selected speeches of an Indian parliamentarian. His interventions in Parliament bore testament to a Leninist dictum.
“The socialists, the fighters for the emancipation of the working people from exploitation had to utilise the bourgeois parliament as a platform, as a base for propaganda, agitation and organisation as long as our struggle was confined to the framework of the bourgeois system.”
Another interesting aspect is his contribution to the Parliamentary standing committee system. He headed the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Tourism and Transport covering five ministries.
The standing committee system is a post-1991 phenomenon. Since its first report, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Tourism and Transport, in its existence of 32 years, released 369 reports all together till February 2024.
Sitaram headed this body for eight years from April 2006 to November 2014. In less than eight years, he submitted 111 reports covering a vast area of work, including the National Highway program, the Airport Authority of India, and the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority and scrutinised the public expenditure of the commercial entities under its wings.
This means close to one-third of the total reports were produced under his chairmanship, which provided valuable and carefully studied and curated information to the nation.
The key achievement of the contribution of the standing committee under his chairmanship was that he could nudge the then Union government to declare the Shipping Corporation of India as a Navaratna company.
Similarly, the work put up by the standing committee helped to save airports like Chennai, Kolkata, Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, and Chandigarh from privatisation. The then civil aviation minister Praful Patel was inclined to privatise as many airports as possible on the lines of Delhi and Hyderabad international airports. However, the watertight reports and scrutiny by the parliamentary standing committee under his chairmanship applied breaks on Praful Patel’s privatisation spree.
Similarly, in his capacity as chairman of the parliamentary standing committee, he intervened in saving a number of issues that are dear to the working class in India, including EPFO interest rates, offloading shares in the Steel Authority of India and upgrading the tourist infrastructure in Kerala and Andaman & Nicobar islands and other parts of the country.
His work in parliamentary forums established him as the best student of Indian democracy who spent every opportunity protecting public interests, public resources, and more particularly workers’ interests.
The parliamentary work of Sitaram Yechury is a political education for organisations of the working masses. It establishes the fact that he was not a person carried away by the general refrain of parliamentarism.
(Author worked as Senior Private Secretary to the Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Tourism and Transport and also a private secretary to Comrade Sitaram Yechury. Currently practicing as advocate in Hyderabad)
