TN politicos condole death of Sitaram Yechury, recall his Tamil connect

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu governor R N Ravi, chief minister M K Stalin and other prominent political leaders condoled the death of CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Thursday. He was 72.

Governor, in his condolence message on X, said, “Deeply saddened by the demise of Thiru Sitaram Yechury, veteran CPI-M leader. His impactful contributions to Indian politics will always be remembered. My heartfelt condolences to his family and followers."

Stalin, in his condolence message on X, said, "Deeply shocked and saddened by the demise of comrade #SitaramYechury, a stalwart of the Left Movement and a towering figure in Indian politics.”

Yechury, a fearless comrade, who stood against the National Emergency as a student leader, was born in a Telugu family in Chennai. Though he moved out of Chennai at an early age to pursue his higher education in JNU, he frequented the state to participate in almost all the state conferences of his party and for election campaigns.

He had an affable relationship with leaders in the state such as former chief ministers M Karunanidhi and J Jayalalithaa, with whom he used to converse in Tamil. In fact, Yechury had proficiency in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Bengali, Hindi and English, which Karunanidhi once appreciated by saying, “You speak to me in Tamil, to Chandrababu Naidu in Telugu, to Jyoti Basu in Bengali, and to Mulayam Singh Yadav and Lalu Prasad Yadav in Hindi. No one else is able to follow what you have said to the other person in a different language and the collective confusion mounts.”

Yechury and Karunanidhi had shared a warm relationship since 1997, at the time of choosing I K Gujral as Prime Minister.

Yechury was invited to deliver his address at the Classical Tamil conference held in Coimbatore in 2010. At the conference, Yechury, while heaping praise on Tamil, had said, “The very fact that the Tamil language continues to develop and thrive, unlike other classical languages in the world like Latin, is because of the fact that it had maintained its liveliness by being constantly among the people and common to the entire people.”

Yechury had a fondness for Tamil Nadu food. Madurai CPM MP Su Venkatesan recalled the days he spent with Yechury. “Whenever he comes to Madurai, he will ask for dosa along with sambar and chutney. He was simple.”

In 2022, when Yechury was in Madurai to participate in a CPM state meeting, Venkatesan presented him a book on the Sangam period settlement Keeladi translated into Telugu. “He (Yechury) was very happy at seeing the book in Telugu. He said that one should know things of the past like Keeladi in their mother tongue to know the complete history,” Venkatesan said.


CPM state secretary K Balakrishnan, while condoling the death of Yechury, said the party flag would fly at half-mast and all party programmes would be cancelled for three days. AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami, in a statement, said the nation had lost an exemplary statesman and an astute front runner of Communist ideology. He expressed his condolences to the family and CPM cadre.

TNCC chief K Selvaperunthagai said Yechury’s death was a great loss not just to CPM but to all secular, progressive, and democratic forces. Congress leader and former Union finance minister P Chidambaram said the passing of Yechury was a cruel blow to forces that were engaged in a determined battle in the defence of democracy, liberty, equality, workers' rights, and human rights.

“He was a committed Marxist, but he was practical enough to understand that some of the goals of Marxism could be achieved, in the current age, only if he stood by other progressive political parties," Chidambaram said.

MNM president Kamal Haasan said, "I am deeply saddened to hear that comrade Sitaram Yechury, a giant of Indian politics, has passed away. Along with his journey from student activist to statesman, he left an indelible mark on our national discourse and politics.”

Actor and TVK president Vijay said on X, “Deeply saddened to hear the news of CPM general secretary comrade Thiru #SitaramYechury’s demise. His contributions to progressive politics will always be remembered. My heartfelt condolences to his family and followers.”

PMK founder S Ramadoss said Yechury was born in Chennai and was drawn to the Communist movement from a very young age. He was one of the exemplary student leaders the nation had seen, he said.

MDMK founder Vaiko said the demise of Yechury is a great loss to the Left and progressive thinkers. “I, on behalf of MDMK, salute his selfless work and console his comrades who are grieving his demise,” said Vaiko.