Photo: The Hindu CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury speaking at the 14th All India conference of Students Federation of India in Madurai on September 6, 2024. His public life began as a student activist in SFI. Photo: Thulasi Kakkat Sitaram Yechury, General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPIM) during an interaction with The Hindu in Kannur in 2024. He faced arrest during Emergency and it cost his doctorate. Photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar Sitaram Yechury is seen during a protest organised by Palestine Solidarity Committee in support of Palestinians amid the ongoing war in Gaza, at Jantar Mantar in June 2024. He has served has the head of CPI(M)‘s international department and has represented the party in many socialist conferences. Photo: V.V. Krishnan Sitaram Yechury and Prakash Karat and some senior alumuni addressing a press conference amidst JNU students’ fight to demand affordable, accessible and quality education, in New Delhi on November 25, 2019. Together with Karat, Yechury played a crucial role in making JNU a Left bastion. Photo: R.V. Moorthy Sitaram Yechury releasing a booklet containing a series of articles analysing the two years of the Modi government at A.K. Gopala Bhawan in New Delhi on June 9, 2016. Yechury was the former Editor of CPI(M)‘s English weekly, People’s Democracy.Photo: PTI Sitaram Yechury was a two-time Rajya Sabha member. He will be remembered for moving a motion against President Pranab Mukherjee’s address in 2015, which was passed by the upper House, causing a major embarrassment to the ruling Narendra Modi government. Only four times in the history of Rajya Sabha, an opposition moved amendment has been passed.Photo: The Hindu CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury laying foundation stone of Harkishan Singh Surjeet Bhawan in New Delhi in 2016. Yechury is probably the first General Secretary of CPI(M) who was never a part of State or district units. Photo: C.V.Subrahmanyam Sitaram Yechury after being elected CPI (M) general secretary seen along with then outgoing general secretary of the party Prakash Karat in 2015. Yechury was relected again in 2018 and 2022. CPI(M) polit bureau member Sitaram Yechury congratulating P. Madhu after he was retained as CPI(M) State secretary at party’s 24th state conference in Vijayawada in 2015.Photo: V.V. Krishnan Sitaram Yechury, Mehbooba Mufti and Kanimozhi at the inauguration of ‘The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy’ at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi in 2013. Yechury was a strong supporter of coalition governments. Though he was never part of a Union government, he and P. Chidambaram drafted the common minimum programme for the United Front government in 1996. He also played a major role in the INDIA bloc formation. Photo: H. Satish CPI(M) general secretary, Harkishan Singh Surjeet having a word with former West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu and Sitaram Yechury at the inauguration of the 17th congress of the party in Hyderabad in 2004. Photo: K.V. Srinivasan The CPI(M) Polit Bureau member, Sitaram Yechury, addressing the students of the Asian College of Journalism in Chennai in 2004. File.Historian R. Champakalakshmi, CPI (M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury and cultural scholar Aijaz Ahmed, at a seminar on `The Making of India’ at the Asian College of Journalism in Chennai in 2003. Photo: V. Sudershan CPI (M) leaders Sitaram Yechury, Harkishan Singh Surjeet, Rajya Sabha MP Shabana Azmi, former Prime Minister V. P. Singh and former Congress president Sonia Gandhi at a rally in protest against the Government’s `failure’ to prevent the Gujarat violence in New Delhi in 2002. Published – September 12, 2024 04:36 pm IST