Sitaram Yechury: Communism’s Last Hope In India | Rare Interviews | Crux Files

when the bjp was in power the congress was the b team of the left when the congress is empire the bjp is the team of the left you remind me of that wonderful phrase in the english language i say it without wanting to give you any offense if you're living in a fool's paradise enjoy it while it lasts well if everybody is a fool that is a paradise we all live in [Music] intellectual pragmatic and a politician with friends across party lines sitaram yaturi has been the cpm's most well-known face for over 40 years now here's a look at his journey from university topper to cpm's general secretary through a series of interviews the hate campaign that goes against me and the calls and the services that i give i'm only happy that some people are getting employment doing all this situation 12 august 1952 in chennai to telugu family he studied in delhi going on to become the all india cbse topper he earned his ban economics from saints defense and anime in economics from jawaharlal nehru university it was there that he became influenced by the communist ideology i born in a hindu traditional family had my veg part done and my thread ceremony done at the age of 11 having studied all the vedas then you say with a name like sitaram with all the vedas why have you landed up as a communist i've landed up as the communists because i've studied all of them yeturi was an active student leader joining the students federation of india and then the communist party of india marxist we all came into the student politics when there was this talk of a total revolution yachari was elected president of jnu student union backed by then sfi president prakash karate his most notable achievement was successfully campaigning to have indira gandhi resigned as jnu chancellor in 1977. the bride yeturi quickly rose through the ranks in the cpm when he was just 32 he was elected to the party's top decision-making body in 1996 he played an important role in the formation of the united front government by drafting the coalition agreement along with peach at ambram after the coalition government collapsed and the bjp came to par yeturi emerged as a fiery opponent of the hindu ideology foreign we'll take one more break he may be a communist he may be atheist but his name is hitaram the cpm saw resurgence of the 2004 lok sabha elections winning 43 seats with other left constituents put together they had a total of over 60 seats this was when yaturi's negotiation and consensus building skills came to the forefront as he was instrumental in getting the left to agree to extend outside support to the upa but constant disagreements over economic policies led friction between the two fdi in retail they wanted to completely open up they have not been able to so your greatest achievement is you've reduced them to a little opening it's not a big opening but they're still open you don't have to be very sarcastic thank you for your concern i mean i didn't know that you were so concerned about left unity the cpm's attack got more firepower after yachuri was elected to the rajya sabha in 2005. complaining you're publicly issuing statements criticizing and what does the government do it pays no attention whatsoever so we will continue to put the pressure if they if they don't accept it you're being taken right no it's not being made usually i'm sorry it's the consequences they will have to they will have to bear things got worse ahead of the 2006 elections in kerala and west bengal two states where the congress and the left were pitted against each other there's a very good chance when you face the electorate in kerala and bengal in two months time they're going to turn around and say to you you promise one thing you do something else and you're taken for a ride by the government at the center i'll take up this challenge let's meet two months later and i'll make you eat your words when we come back victorious in both the states he was right as the left swept both elections their renewed confidence led them to take a very strong stance against the 2008 indo-us nuclear deal claiming the deal would give the u.s too much influence over india's nuclear and foreign policies no you don't want to see it because you have an ideological position that doesn't set yourself up i do not i do not want to subscribe to your position of options subscribe to the truth now listen up keep obfuscating the facts in order to to become cozy up to america yachting was willing to back the deal if certain conditions were met but the overwhelming majority of the left led by prakash karat was staunchly against it and the party would do its support to the upa will you be voting against the government in a vote of confidence in parliament yes we will 100 percent even if that means voting with the bjp around inside it won't be voting with the bishops on the same side of the same side yeah like i've always said if you travel in a train you can't choose your co-pass and use so you're quite happy to travel with the bjp no but what can we do that makes you hypocrisy i want to reach my destination and my destination is opposition to this youth the upa won the trust vote leaving the left politically isolated in the 2009 general elections the cpm won just 16 seats you have repeatedly blocked the reformist party from proceeding on the path of reform hanging on to some obscure ideology which has never succeeded anywhere in the world why should you not learn from the chinese left and reform yourself or else be consigned to the dustbin of history thank you sir thank you very much for your prophecy but i hope you are not an nri i am not an nra i'm an ias officer i see you thank you for happening in five years thank you very much all right thank you very much for your prophecy but next time i suggest you join politics and take a political position let the people decide take a political position let the people decide you're now looking back was that a tactical error no it is what's in international parliaments unfortunately is called collateral damage inflicted on yourself you know that that is that is what has happened in 2011 things got worse for the cpm with prakash karate as general secretary the party was wiped out in west bengal by the manta led tmz losing for the first time in 34 years instead of consolidating and building on the gains you are made in 2004 you have actually squandered away or lost all that advantage isn't that frustrating ah more than frustrating is disappointing definitely it's definitely disappointing because in 2005 when we had the party congress in delhi ah but uh the whole projection was now to move into you know northern india and so what what the plans that we had and instead of that you suddenly had the indo-us nuclear deal and you had this whole thing come up so so you had you had a certain derailment of of the plan that you laid out the road map that you had the humiliation wasn't over yet the cpm also lost its footing in kerala to the congress it's been a very bad electoral performance i mean no doubt about it and the figures speak for themselves i mean this is the lowest that we have registered either in the parliament or in these assemblies and this is a very severe uh electoral jolt for the party there's no doubt about it would you use the word tobacco debacle it depends on how you define it definitely i mean if you want to call it a debacle i have no objection but in the sense that i'm not going to really protest about it but it is a severe setback for us and that is something we'll have to properly analyze and correct the left tried to course correct and lead talks for a possible third front ahead of the 2014 loksa by elections but the cpm was in no position to bargain winning just nine seats in the lok sabha the cpm then looked to yachuri to save the sinking political ship and elected him general secretary in 2015. unlike the rigid prakash karat yachuri was known for being more open to new ideas we required to to improve our organizational setup and there's a very very very old what you call principle of a communist organization that our political analysis may be 100 correct but that analysis is meaningless unless we have an organization that can carry that understanding to the people otherwise we'll just be i will retire intellectuals yeti proved he was far from retired becoming one of the fiercest critics of the modi government is this going to control black money six percent if it is going to control also but in the bargain sir it's like the prime minister clearing a pond to kill the crocodiles forgetting that the crocodiles can survive on land also the big crocodiles have survived is the small fish that have died in 2016 yachari was at the forefront of protests after jnu student leaders were accused of international activities this hrd minister is converting the human resources development of which she's in charge into a hindu rashtra development with the 2016 west bengal elections around the corner the cpm allied with former nemesis congress in a bid to challenge the mumta government however it not only lost to the tmc again but was also relegated to the third position as the bjp game ground in the state the party was able to form the government in kerala defeating the congress-led udf on the ground though the party cada has had a running feud with the rss leading to the loss of several lives on both sides it's not a good sign at all we don't want this violence but then there's somebody has to respond to stop it you've said that we are capable of giving a fitting reply it almost seems like an eye and eye for an eye answer so how is that a responsible response otherwise what do i say kill more of my comrades if you order if you're receiving it if you are in the receiving end how do you protect your own people in 2017 the cbm central committee voted against giving yachuri a third term as rajya sabha mp something many termed as a historic blunder even his rivals hailed it as a loss to the parliament he's always has the in same enthusiasm which he had during his student days he's ready to stand up and participate in almost every debate makes his views known and on a serious notify message so that he's made an extremely valuable consideration as a parliament and a contribution as a parliamentarian to almost every debate in which he has participated yaturi's farewell was a somber moment in the upper house but he did not lose the opportunity to leave on a witty note outside support is the intellectual is the intellectual property right of this api that is something that that that you'll have but he did complete the whole story he didn't complete the illustrator he said sitaram yetudi i called you sitharam to which i always used to reply to him saying this jairam mortuary if if if if his policies are followed if his policies are loaded in 2018 yachty was re-elected in his second term as general secretary that same year the cpm's 25-year long rule in tripura ended with the bjp winning 43 of 59 seats as the cpm stared at the possibility of becoming politically irrelevant yetcheri proposed to the cpm ally with former rival congress for the 2090 loksa by elections rss's vision of converting a secular democratic republic of india into what they call their hindu rashtra that is the process that is on and that will be disastrous for you for the country and the people that is our utmost priority if that is the utmost priority we cannot close our options so what all that i was saying is keep the options open etchery's hopes were dashed after the cpm central committee voted against the proposal an upset yeturi even offered to resign but was asked to continue as general secretary the cpm's decision to go at it alone backfired as it was decimated in the 2019 elections it managed to win just three seats as it lost several strongholds to the bjp the bjp is currently leading bjp also leading in north bengal but i think what is fascinating is and we've talked about this through the election cycle you go back 10 years ago this entire belt was left wood this entire belt was leftward this is beer boom uh bankura purulia jargram that entire vote seems to have shifted to the bjp although its numbers dwindled politically the cpm did not lose its figure when it came to street protests particularly on farmer's issues in 2019 the all-indian kisan sabha the present front of the cpm held a 180 kilometer march from narshik to mumbai demanding relief measures to farmers through the years yeturi has been seen as a pragmatic leader whose ability to maintain relationships across party lines has made him one of the most acceptable faces of the communist party with many critics writing off the cpm it will be interesting to see whether the hre will be able to lead the party to victory in the upcoming west bengal and kerala elections to keep the red flag flying on india's political map you

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Length: 14min 34sec (874 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 12 2020