THE death of Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury on September 12 dealt a heavy blow to the people of India and the world communist movement.

A hugely respected figure across most of India’s heavily populated political spectrum, he led millions of people in the struggle against communalism, exploitation, discrimination and poverty. He defended his country’s unity, sovereignty and ethnic and religious diversity.

And he did so with erudition, serenity, a dash of passion and a profound commitment to the principles of Marxism-Leninism.

Only weeks after his 72nd birthday, Sitaram was taken to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, with an acute respiratory infection. He lost the struggle that comes to us all, with family, friends and comrades at his side. His body has been gifted to the AIIMS for research.

But what achievements and memories he leaves behind! The tributes have been fulsome.

President Mallikarjun Kharge of the main opposition Congress party described Sitaram as “an excellent parliamentarian and an outstanding intellectual; he served the people of India with pragmatism blended with idealism.” He was the “collective conscience” of India’s progressives.

Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh praised “a very fine human being, a multilingual bibliophile, an unrepentant Marxist with a pragmatic streak … and a superb parliamentarian with a wonderful wit and sense of humour.”

Movingly, he added: “Salaam tovarish. You have left us much too early, but you enriched public life immeasurably and will not be forgotten.”

Communist Party of India general secretary Doraisamy Raja recalled many decades of collaboration in the students’ movement and the Rajya Sabha (upper house of the Indian parliament and the United Front national government).

His valedictory comment: “Sitaram was one of the most outstanding leaders of the left and communist movement in contemporary times.”

Yechury was born into a high-caste Brahmin family in Madras (now Chennai). His mother was a government officer, and his father was a public transport engineer. Growing up in Hyderabad, he went on to gain honours and master’s degrees in economics in Delhi.

While at the Jawarharlal Nehru University (JNU), he joined the Students Federation of India (SFI) and, in 1975, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), a breakaway from the main Communist Party of India in 1964.

The CPI(M) had opposed the pro-Congress line of the party leadership and saw no progressive role for an Indian bourgeoisie that favoured cold war “non-alignment” and constructive relations with the USSR. Instead, the CPI(M) promoted mass and class struggle, soon outgrowing its parent party and going on to lead left alliance governments in the states of West Bengal, Tripura and  —  as today  —  Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

Sitaram soon abandoned his doctorate studies to organise against prime minister Indira Gandhi’s state of emergency (1975-77). He emerged from arrest and detention to be elected president of the JNU students union, where he worked closely with future CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat.

Further honours followed: national joint secretary and president of the SFI, then elected member of the CPI(M) central committee in 1984 and the politburo in 1992.

Guided by the strategy of his party’s general secretary (and a great friend of Britain’s communists), Harkishan Singh Surjeet, working closely with the CPI, he played a central role in building the United Front that ruled India between 1996 and 1998. Led by the Janata Dal (People’s Party), its common minimum programme also owed much to Sitaram’s drafting and negotiating skills.

Likewise, he helped build and sustain the United Progressive Alliance and its Congress-led coalition government from 2004 until 2008. The CPI(M)-led left Front then withdrew its support, protesting against the Indo-US Civil Nuclear Agreement, despite the amendments demanded by Sitaram in the Rajya Sabha, where he represented the West Bengal legislative assembly, and conceded by the Delhi government.

Mired in corruption, the Congress-led regime eventually fell in 2014 to the Hindu chauvinist, anti-Muslim BJP.

In the meantime, Sitaram took on the arduous work of CPI(M) international secretary, jointly hosting the International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties in New Delhi in 2009 with charm, diligence and good humour. When I suggested some improvements in the grammar and syntax of the English-language draft statement to be signed by a hundred parties and liberation movements, he announced from the platform: “The final statement will be checked by the general secretary of the Communist Party of Britain, Rob Griffiths, our very own Keeper of the Queen’s English.” Ouch.

In a similarly playful spirit, he came across sweltering foreign delegates who had all chosen the same cold drink to stave off dehydration. “Ah, US Coca-Cola,” he exclaimed, “the favourite drink of Western communists!”

He travelled the world for the next few years, including many visits to Britain to address meetings organised by the Indian Workers Association (GB), the Association of Indian Communists and the Communist Party of Britain.

In 2015, at his party’s 21st congress and in his home state of Andhra Pradesh, Yechury succeeded Prakash Karat as CPI(M) general secretary.

In his three elected terms since, he has been a champion of India’s landless peasants, small farmers, workers, women and ethnic and religious minorities in the fight against BJP Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s violently reactionary policies.

He played a central role in the formation of the INDIA alliance, which turned back the BJP tide at this year’s Lok Sabha (lower house) elections, as Modi’s coalition lost 63 seats and now depends upon secular regionalists and Janata Dal offshoots for its parliamentary majority.

Shortly afterwards, I was delighted when Yechury, his wife and journalist Seema, AIC secretary Harsev Bains and his wife Preet paid a sudden visit to Irene and me at our home in Caerleon, south Wales, on July 11.

He had expressed a wish to see Wales for the first time. We enjoyed a pub meal and an abortive mission — car trouble — to explore a forested coalmining and iron-smelting valley nearby.

Our informal discussion ranged from the mass struggles in India, Modi’s foreign policy and the Ukraine war (we shared the same view of Nato’s role, Putin’s invasion and China’s excellent peace initiative) to solidarity with Palestine, Britain’s new Labour government and the Communist Party’s response.

He planned to return to Britain later this month to celebrate the 75th anniversary of People’s China on September 28 and to finalise the mass enrolment of AIC members in the CPB.

Both must now go ahead without him, but in his honour.

Yechury leaves behind not only Seema but also his daughter Akhila, who teaches history in Scotland. His son Ashish fell victim to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021.

He will live on in the hearts, minds and memories of the millions of his comrades, admirers, friends and family members across the world he dedicated his life to changing.

Robert Griffiths is general secretary of the Communist Party of Britain.