 "image")
Who is Sitaram Yechury?
Sitaram Yechury is the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Politburo Communist Party of India (Marxist) since April 19, 2015. His second term as a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha ended in 2017.
Early life, education, and political career
Born on August 12, 1952 in Chennai, Sitaram Yechury grew up in Hyderabad and studied at All Saints High School till tenth standard (Class 10) and later reached Delhi during Telangana agitation of 1969.
Yechury joined Presidents Estate School in Delhi and achieved the All-India first rank in the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Higher Secondary Examination. He acquired first rank in B A (Hons) in Economics at St Stephen's College, Delhi, and M A in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). He joined the JNU for a PhD in Economics which was aborted with his arrest during 'The Emergency' in 1975.
Yechury joined Presidents Estate School in Delhi and achieved the All-India first rank in the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Higher Secondary Examination. He acquired first rank in B A (Hons) in Economics at St Stephen's College, Delhi, and M A in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). He joined the JNU for a PhD in Economics which was aborted with his arrest during 'The Emergency' in 1975.
In 1974, Yechury joined the Students' Federation of India (SFI) and a year later, he joined the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI (M)).
In the 1970s, Yechury was President of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union led by the Students' Federation of India (SFI) thrice. He was arrested during the Emergency. He, along with Prakash Karat, was responsible for turning JNU into a Left bastion. In 1984, he was elected to the Central Committee of the CPI(M). It took very little for Yechury to become a full-timer in the organisation. From 1978 to 1998 he personally grew in the party.
Yechury is seen as someone who is keen on coalitions to keep the right wing out of power. He and P Chidambaram drafted the common minimum programme of the United Front government in 1996. He was instrumental in getting the CPI (M) to support the first United Progressive Alliance government.
During the negotiations for the Indo-US Nuclear Pact, Yechury listed in the Rajya Sabha all the conditions that the CPM required of the agreement. After the Manmohan Singh government satisfied all the conditions, he was overruled by Prakash Karat, who claimed that the agreement still violated the CPM's idea of "independent foreign policy". It is said that Yechuri felt "displeased and helpless".