Sitaram Yechury, revolutionary who loved cinema, cricket
Politics tamfitronics I knew comrade Sitaram Yechury for 46 years, since the SFI’s third all-India conference at Patna in Feb 1979. The conference selected a five-member team including Yechury and I to establish the SFI’s central office in Delhi. We all had fought, inside and outside the jail, against Indira Gandhi’s tyrannical rule during Emergency. As students’ union chairman of Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, Sitaram was particularly notable. He led a protest march to Gandhi’s residence demanding her resignation as JNU chancellor after she refused to relinquish the post despite losing the 1977 general elections. The image of Gandhi listening calmly to the student union’s resolution read by a spirited Sitaram is unforgettable.Sitaram topped exams consistently yet chose to discontinue his PhD studies during Emergency to join people’s struggle. He honed his skills as...
