Sitaram Yechury

Sitaram Yechury
Sitaram Yechury in Kollam, Kerala during Assembly election 2011
Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha)
Constituency	West Bengal
Personal details
Born	(1952-08-12) August 12, 1952
Political party	Communist Party of India (Marxist)

Sitaram Yechury (born August 12, 1952) is an Indian politician and one of the communist leaders in the country. He is the new general secretary of CPI (M). He is a member of the politburo of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the party's Parliamentary group leader.

Political career

Yechury joined the Student Federation of India (SFI) in 1974. A year later, he joined the Communist Party of India (Marxist).In 1970 he stood first class first in his school leaving examination and joined St. Stephen's College, Delhi. In 1975, he completed his M.A., first class, in Economics, from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi. Subsequently, he joined JNU for a Ph.D. degree which he could not complete due to his arrest during The Emergency.

He was underground for some time, organising resistance to the Emergency, before his arrest in 1975. After the Emergency, he was elected as President of the JNU Students' Union thrice during one year (1977–78).

In 1978, he was elected as All India Joint Secretary of SFI, and went on the become the All India President of SFI. He left SFI in 1986. In 1984, he was invited to the Central Committee of the CPI(M). He was elected to the Central Committee in the CPI(M) XII Congress in 1985, to the Central Secretariat at the Thirteenth Congress in 1988 and to the Politburo at the Fourteenth Congress in 1992.

He was elected to Rajya Sabha from West Bengal in July 2005.

He is a columnist with Hindustan Times, a widely circulated daily.

Personal life

He was born in a Telugu speaking Brahmin family in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Yechury is married to journalist Seema Chisti, formerly the Delhi editor of BBC Hindi Service, she is presently the Resident Editor of Indian Express, Delhi. He has a daughter and a son from a previous marriage.

Controversies and Criticism

Frequent disruptions in Parliament

Yechury has been constantly criticesd for his repeated disruptions in parliament and not allowing parliament to work without any special reasons. While Yechury justifies disruptions calling it as legitimate process in a democracy and government can't blame opposition for it.

Amendment to the President's address

On 3 March 2015 during parliament session, Yechury moved an amendment to the President's address which was passed by division of votes in Rajya Sabha which brought embarrassment to the Modi government.

This amendment is moved by Yechury even after various assurances given by the government.

This was the fourth time in Rajya Sabha’s history that an amendment moved by the opposition to the motion of thanks to the President’s address has been passed.

This has been criticised as vendetta politics done by Yechury, as earlier while replying to motion of thanks, prime minister Narendra Modi criticised 30 years of Communist party rule in West Bengal calling it as anti-industry and anti-development.

Pro-China Stance

As Yechury is a communist leader, he has natural pro-China and anti-America views. He also criticised visit of the US president Barack Obama on Republic Day celebration of India. While blaming USA for rise of Islamic fundamentalism he said, "US military interventions in West Asia have created a situation of complete uncertainty. The military interventions have always given birth to the rise of fundamentalism, which we see today in the menace that has been created by the ISIS. They have given birth to such tendencies."

He also blames USA for its hegemonic attitude, he said "Now, in their(USA) quest for global hegemony, they are trying to capture the energy resources in the world. They are trying to control the entire process of the energy transfers or trade in the world. And for this reason, their military interventions has also continuing to deny the Palestinians their legitimate right to a homeland."