Sitaram Yechury, CPI(M) General Secretary, On Ventilator Support At AIIMS Delhi

Sitaram Yechury, 72, is being monitored by a multi-disciplinary team of doctors at AIIMS, the party said, adding that he was admitted on August 19 for treatment of a pneumonia-like chest infection.

Outlook Web Desk

Updated on: 11 September 2024 2:08 pm

Born in 1952, Sitaram Yechury's entry to politics was in 1974 through left-wing student organisation - Students' Federation of India (SFI). He joined the CPI(M) a year later. Photo: File image

Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury's is critical and on respiratory support at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi for acute respiratory tract infection.

Yechury, 72, is being monitored by a multi-disciplinary team of doctors at AIIMS, the party said, adding that he was admitted on August 19 for treatment of a pneumonia-like chest infection.

Born in 1952, Sitaram Yechury's entry to politics was in 1974 through left-wing student organisation - Students' Federation of India (SFI). He joined the CPI(M) a year later.

The Marxist politician has been a member of the CPI(M) politburo since 1992 and has also been a Member of Rajya Sabha from West Bengal from 2005 to 2017.

Sitaram Yechury assumed charge as CPI(M) general secretary in 2015, succeeding Prakash Karat.

As per information found on online sources, Yechury grew up in Hyderabad and studied there till 1969, his tenth standard. The Telangana agitation of 1969, a political movement for the statehood for the region that was part of Andhra Pradesh back then, brought Yechury to Delhi.

He joined Presidents Estate School in Delhi and achieved the All-India first rank in the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) higher secondary examination.

Subsequently, Yechury studied Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Economics at St Stephen's College of the Delhi University and then Master of Arts in Economics from the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).

Yechury also joined the JNU for a PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) in Economics, which he had to drop out of in 1975 due to his arrest during The Emergency.

On June 25, 1975, the then prime minister Indira Gandhi, imposed Emergency in the country, suspending civil liberties, jailing opposition leaders, activists and dissidents and effecting press censorship.

Before his arrest, Yechury had gone underground for some time, organising resistance to the Emergency, . After the Emergency, he was elected as the President of the JNU Students' Union thrice in a year (1977–78).

In 2021, Sitaram Yechury’s eldest son Ashish Yechury passed away at the age of 35 from Covid-19 complications .

Ashish is survived by his wife, Swati, his mother, Indrani Mazumdar, sister Akhila and brother Danish. He had worked in The Times of India , IBN Live , Newslaundry and Pune Mirror.