I have been asked to write on the role of Sitaram Yechury in shaping the progressive democratic legacy of the Jawaharlal Nehru University in general and Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union in particular. Well, I must say that Sita, as he was called by one and all in the JNU fraternity, was as much shaped by the progressive, democratic culture of JNU when he joined the campus in 1973 as he was instrumental in nurturing it when he came to the leadership position in the student movement in 1977.

The JNU was established in 1969 but it took almost three years for the various official bodies to find their feet. The first elections to JNUSU were held in 1972; that time, there were two distinct political groups in the campus; one led by Prakash Karat of the SFI, the student wing of the CPM, and the opposing group coordinated by Anand Kumar. Before coming to JNU, Anand Kumar was the BHU Students’ Union president and had been expelled for leading a student agitation in the campus. Anand Kumar belonged to the SYS, the student wing of the Socialist Party, but soon he realised that there were not many takers for Lohiaite ideology in the JNU campus then. So Anand mobilised students opposed to the monolithic ideology of the SFI and AISF under the banner of Free Thinkers.

The first elected president of the JNUSU, V C Koshy, did not belong to any political group; in fact, both Prakash Karat and Anand Kumar had supported Koshy against a Congress-backed candidate. But the next year, in 1973, both Prakash and Anand entered the fray. Prakash defeated Anand that year. But the tables were turned in 1974 when both the candidates contested again against each other and this time Anand Kumar emerged victorious.

The credit must go to both the rival student groups — the left group of SFI + AISF and the opposite rainbow group called Free Thinkers — for painstakingly building a democratic foundation of student politics. The students’ union elections were conducted by the election commissioners elected by the students themselves. Post-dinner debates and discussions became the staple of JNU politics. Study and Struggle was the rallying cry of student activism.

But one must admit such a democratic progressive culture could not have been institutionalised in the JNU campus without the support of the then administration. G Parthasarathy, a retired diplomat, was the first vice chancellor of the JNU; he actively supported the progressive initiatives of the students that laid the foundation of a robust democratic culture; Parthasarathy had readily agreed to various demands like student representation in the Academic Council and other academic bodies so that students had a say in framing the academic ecosystem in the campus.

When this democratic experiment in JNU politics was in its embryonic stage, Sitaram joined the first batch of the MA economics course in JNU in 1973. He had come from the St Stephen’s and had not tasted the political waters yet. That year, SFI swept the polls under Prakash Karat’s leadership. The next year, in 1974, when Prakash contested election for the position of president again, Sita was part of his team; he was a candidate for the post of councillor from the School of Social Sciences. Prakash lost but Sitaram won. Sita’s baptism of fire in student politics thus began in 1974 in the students’s council led by Anand Kumar. Sita never looked back.

During the Emergency next year, Sita went underground and took part in the resistance movement before his arrest. When the Emergency was lifted and an extraordinary JNUSU election took place in April 1977, Sita became the presidential candidate of the SFI and won a decisive mandate. A few months later, in September 1977, Sita again swept the polls in the regular JNUSU election. But a few weeks later Sita had to resign as a no-confidence motion against the Students’s council was passed in a marathon general body meeting spanning 12 hours;  the charge was that the students’ council led by him had failed to punish the four guilty university officials responsible for the excesses in the campus during the Emergency. But two months later, when another interim election took place, Sita romped home for the third time.

That might sound strange, but that happened because Sita was an immensely popular figure; even those who did not agree with the Marxist ideology or with SFI’s politics, were ready to support Sitaram  personally because he was a charming person in every possible way a student could be; he was quite handsome, he was the topper in the class, he was immensely articulate, he was a firebrand at the podium but soft-spoken in personal interactions. Another quality that endeared Sita to those who didn’t belong to SFI was that he was non-dogmatic in his approach to life. ‘Let’s agree to disagree’ was his standard response to those who differed with him; that was a trait that made him popular even as a national political leader in the later years.

As an extraordinary coincidence, Sita was elected president thrice within a span of barely one year and his last term ended in July 1978 but he had a much more enduring impact on JNU politics as he kept coming back to monitor and guide SFI activities in the campus first as the Delhi state president of the SFI and later as its all-India president. Even when he became a member of the Central Committee of the CPM and later of the Politburo, or even as general secretary of his party, he was a regular visitor to the JNU campus either to express solidarity with the students protesting against injustice or to invoke them to be part of the broader struggle of the workers, the landless labourers and the marginalised sections to get them justice.

Sita joined the JNU campus when a vibrant democratic culture was taking roots; he actively nourished it during his days of political activism in the campus. That strong foundation of a progressive environment continued for years even as different political formations other than the SFI won the popular student support. But things changed for the worse after 2014 when a stridently communal political establishment came to power in the country. Hooligan elements owing allegiance to the ruling party unleashed terror in the campus, with the tacit support of the university administration. Violence, which was anathema to the JNU’s political culture for years, rather decades, raised its ugly head and it sought to destroy the unique intellectual environment of the campus. In that dark hour, Sitaram Yechury, as a Member of Parliament, drew national attention to the systematic destruction of the democratic ethos by the ruling party in the JNU and other campuses in different parts of the country.

Sitaram was a product of a progressive student movement; he endeavoured till his last breath to keep the fire of democratic student activism burning. His passing away is a huge loss for the democratic student activists of all ideological persuasions across the country.

(Author is a senior journalist and former JNUSU President (1982-83))

Condolence Message

We are deeply saddened to hear about the passing of Comrade Sitaram Yechury. His death at this critical juncture is a great loss for the Indian communist movement and for every Indian fighting in defence of democracy, federal framework and India's pluralist cultural fabric. He will be greatly missed by the entire spectrum of India's democratic movement from university campuses and trade unions to diverse platforms of dialogue and debate.

At this hour of loss and grief, we stand with the entire ranks of CPI(M), Comrade Yechury's family, comrades, friends and admirers. Adieu, Comrade Sitaram. We will carry forward your mission of a socialist India with all our might. Red Salute to Comrade Sitaram Yechury!

- Central Committee, CPI(ML)