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It was a winter morning. I was a young journalist in Delhi when Sitaram Yechury called me and said he needed a few books by Swami Vivekananda urgently. ‘One of them is ‘East and West’ and the other one is ‘Karma Yoga’.
’ ‘Oh my god!’ I exclaimed. At the time, Yechury had left JNU and became a CPI(M) politburo member, but wasn’t general secretary yet. So why did he want to read Vivekananda’s books? ‘Your office is near Gol Market.
Ramakrishna Mission Ashram in Delhi is nearby, and you can get the books there,’ I responded, adding that it was also close to the CPI(M) office. I offered to make inquiries and called Swami Gokulananda, who headed the mission’s Delhi operations. The monk was delighted at the prospect of the communist studying Vivekananda’s texts.
He said that there was no need for Yechury to send someone to fetch the books. Instead, he offered to go to the CPIM headquarters himself. Gokulananda arrived soon after at the party office at AK Gopalan Bhavan, two bags containing several books in his hands, with me I following.
I asked him later about what would happen to those books and he said, ‘I’ve to go to Kerala to give a speech,’ adding that those books were needed for that lecture. He said, ‘Many people had misconceptions about the Communist Party in the past.’ EMS Namboodiripad, he added, had read ‘Indian Philosophy’ and ‘Vivekananda’s Rachnavali’ and that the former Kerala CM and communist stalwart maintained that Gandhism from cover to cover was a prerequisite for any criticism of it.
Yechury routinely studied Rashtra Bhavna and Swami Vivekananda's Indian philosophy. This is a side of Yechury unfamiliar to many of us. He was a progressive, left-wing politician , who never quite got used to using mobile phones.
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‘Is it stated in our communism that a communist is not allowed to eat at a 5-star establishment? We have nothing against fine dining or beverages served in 5-star establishments. We want this chance to be available to everyone and that society not be divided on the basic of class.’ He would enjoy challenging people with his name, Sitaram.
He’d say, ‘I am an atheist communist, but I have both Sita and Ram in my name.’ He would say that his atheism didn’t mean that he didn’t respect the incredible influence that the Ramayan has had on Indian civilisation. Nor did it mean that he didn’t respect the devotion of millions of Indians.
Sitaram Yechury was a communist atheist with a humanitarian heart. A man who supported Indian pluralism and with whom politicians across the spectrum were at ease. (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel ).
