SACP Mourns the Death of the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Comrade Sitaram Yechury

Thursday, 19 September 2024

The South African Communist Party is deeply saddened by the death of Comrade Sitaram Yechury, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPIM). Comrade Sitaram (72) breathed his last after a battle with a lung infection. The SACP conveys its message of sincere condolences to the Yechury family, leadership and entire membership of the CPIM as well as the working class in India at large.

In the words of his party,

“Comrade Sitaram Yechury was the topmost leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), an outstanding leader of the Left movement and a well-known Marxist ideologue”.

“He was a brilliant student who secured a first class in both his undergraduate and post-graduate degrees in economics. He joined the student movement in Jawaharlal Nehru University in 1974 and became a leader of the Students’ Federation of India. He was thrice elected as president of the JNU Students Union within a span of two years. He was All-India President of the Students’ Federation …from 1984 to 1986 and played an important role in developing the student organisation as an all-India force”.

As the SACP, we have fond memories of Comrade Sitaram as a strong supporter of the anti-apartheid movement, to bring down the bastion of fascist reaction in Pretoria for the liberation of the people of South Africa.

Comrade Sitaram was also a delegate of the CPIM at the 12th International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties held in South Africa, and our party had the pleasure in hosting him and engaging in fiery debates on the state of the international working class movement and on major contemporary issues of strategy and tactics.

Comrade Yechury was a firebrand Marxist-Leninist theoretician, and our party always sought to strengthen relations with the broader Indian communist movement, as these consolidated under his leadership. We will remember him for being gifted with good writing skills accompanied by oratorical brilliance and Marxist ingenuity in managing very complex issues of political strategy in the communist movement. He was a political commissar of high note and remained consistent throughout his life.

He fought to maintain the secular, democratic character of India and was in this regard an inspiration for many in the world. We lower our banner in memory of this great leader of the international communist movement and we will all continue admonishing his legacy as one of foremost Communists in the period following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Issued by the South African Communist Party,

Founded in 1921 as the Communist Party of South Africa.

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