The Y.B. Chavan centre auditorium was filled to capacity at a meeting on September 24 in memory of Sitaram Yechury, general secretary of the Communist party of India Marxist, who passed away in Delhi two weeks ago. Mr Sharad Pawar, leaders of different political parties and social activists paid tributes at the meeting organised by Maha vikas Aghadi.
He was most needed today to continue to build a coalition against communal forces, that was the general theme. It was also felt that he went too early, 72 years is not long these days, he was always soft spoken and friendly and he should have checked his smoking.
Mr Sharad Pawar remembered Mr Yechury as a cultured leader, a good friend, who had played a crucial role during the coalition of UPA .
Ashok Dhawale, polit bureau member of the CPM, said a month ago no one could have thought Mr Yechury would pass away so soon. He recalled his association with Mr Yechury spread over 45 years beginning with the Students Federation of India. Mr Yechury had visited every district of Maharashtra, addressed a number of meetings.
Subhash Lande, general secretary of the state CPI, recalled that Mr Yechury had introduced him to Mr Anura Dissanayake, Sri Lankan comrade, 30 years ago, he would have been happy to find that he is now the president of Sri Lanka.
Jayant Patil of the Peasants and Workers party, recalled Mr Yechury’s support to the agitation against the special economic zone in Raigad district. One meeting on the issue drew so many people that Mrs Sonia Gandhi rang from Delhi when it was on and got a first hand report.Teesta Setalvad recalled that she had had 12 interviews with Mr Yechury for Communalism Combat. She did well to mention among the family members, Yechury’s first wife Indrani Majumdar ( it was appropriate because she has largely , sadly lacked mention in much of writing on him or in relation to her son’s death.)
Arvind Sawant, Shiv Sena MP of the Uddhav Thackeray-led party, was quick to sense the irony of his presence at the CPM-dominated meeteing in view of the history of the Sena-Communist relationship , and said as MP he found Mr Yechury was very good in drafting statements on behalf of opposition parties.
Narasayya Adam, former CPM MLA from Solapur, was visibly moved by the memory of Mr Yechury, we talked in Telugu, he said and recalled the initiative Mr Yechury took in organising a meeting of bidi works of Solapur who were facing job losses , with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Mr Singh assured the delegation that if the government could not provide more employment, the least it could do was not to take away existing jobs.
Among other speakers were Nana Patole, state Congress president, Hussain Dalwai, Kumar Ketkar, former Congress MPs, Arjun Dangle, prominent dalit writer, Vijay Kulkarni of Lal Nishan party, Dhananjay Shinde of Aam Admi party, Shyam Gohil of CPI ML,and prominent activists including Ulka Mahajan, Feroze Mithiborwala, Sanjay Mangala Gopal of NAPM, Tushar Gandhi, great grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, and Nilotpal Basu, polit bureau member of the CPM.
Ketkar said Mr Yechury had a broad support because he had imbibed Nehru’s philosophy along with that of Marx and Dr Ambedkar.
Uday Narkar, senior CPM leader in Maharashtra, book translator, theatre lover, welcomed the gathering.
Our leaders need to take care of their health. Mr Sharad Pawar suffered badly from cancer due to tobacco but miraculously bounced back and is in fact leading the alternative to Modi in Maharashtra at the age of 82, much more in age than Mr Yechury. Fidel Castro in his old age found great nutrition in the Indian drum stick and cultivated it on a large scale in Cuba. We can and need to learn from some of our good traditions.
Vidyadhar Date is a senior journalist and author of a book on public transport
