On the sad and solemn occasion of veteran Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) leader Sitaram Yechury’s untimely passing away on September 12, the country and people in a state of mourning are reminded of his exemplary role as a parliamentarian in defending the constitution. What Yechury did assumes critical significance when people in several states of our country made the saving of the constitution a major electoral issue during the 18th general elections. They did so as part of their struggle to save it from the fatal assault of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Modi regime.
Yechury as a member of Rajya Sabha for two terms from 2005 till 2017 and a recipient of outstanding parliamentarian award became very strident in defending the constitution while speaking in the House in 2016 on a short duration discussion on the situation prevailing in the institutions of higher education with specific reference to Jawaharlal Nehru University and Hyderabad Central University (HCU). It may be recalled that in 2016 some students of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) were charged with sedition and Rohit Vemula, a Dalit student of HCU committed suicide after his fellowship was stopped and he faced recurrent caste discrimination on account of his Dalit identity.
In his speech Yechury said that discussing Ambedkar in a two-day session of the parliament would not be sufficient unless legislative measures were not enacted to protect the reservation facilities which get contracted because of the economic policies followed by Modi government. He located the issue in the context of its relentless attack on the constitution which he said amounted to an “insurrection.”
He very persuasively argued that on account of neo-liberal economic policies ruthlessly followed and carried forward after 2014, public sector undertakings were devastated and jobs available there got considerably shrunk or totally lost. As a result, he stated that the scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward classes who by virtue of reservation facilities were getting jobs in those undertakings were helplessly witnessing a situation marked by loss of employment opportunities which otherwise they would have availed of.
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Yechury even went to the extent of pleading for reservation of jobs in the private sector. It may be recalled that President of India K.R. Narayanan in his address to the nation on the eve of Republic Day in 2002 pleaded that the private sector should adopt social policies like the diversity Bill and the affirmative action that a capitalist country like the US adopted and implemented. What Yechury stated in 2016 captured that vision of Narayanan whom he admired greatly. It is quite noteworthy that the same idea is now being accorded priority by leaders of the Congress party as part of their pursuance of social justice agenda.
Yechury’s utterances in the Rajya Sabha in 2016 that Modi regime and the BJP posed existential threat to the constitution and reservation in jobs got resonated during the 18th general elections when people interpreted Modi and BJP’s slogan “Ab ki Baar Charso Par”, this time 400 plus seats in the Lok Sabha, as an electoral strategy to alter the constitution and put an end to reservation. Such interpretation gained huge traction in several parts of India after some BJP leaders, many of whom contested parliamentary elections, claimed that the Modi regime required 400 plus seats to change the constitution.
It is quite extraordinary that people’s fear expressed in 2024 that the constitution might be lost was outlined by Yechury in 2016 in the Rajya Sabha and he called it “insurrection against the constitution of India.”
The coinage of the term “insurrection against the constitution” brings out his ability as a communist leader to make a catchy formulation to communicate with people and alert them about the diabolical danger to India because of the BJP politics with an intent, in his words, “to metamorphose a secular democratic Republic to a theocratic Hindu Rashtra.”
Yechury quoted Ambedkar who said in his last speech in the constituent assembly : “In politics we will be recognising the principle of one man one vote and one vote one value. In our social and economic life, we shall, by reason of our social and economic structure, continue to deny the principle of one man one value.”
He recalled Ambedkar’s cautionary words that if one person one vote would not be transformed to one person one value the political structure would be torn apart.
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Yechury said that the constitutional vision of an equal society got trampled upon by the Modi regime by the manner in which it dealt with the JNU, the HCU and other institutions of higher education. He proceeded to add with anguish that the suicide of Vemula, charges of sedition slapped against the JNU students and condemning it as the den of anti-nationals would harm the future of youth who aspire to study in such reputed universities which produced excellent students in every field. His charge that the BJP employed nationalism to create religiosity and religious frenzy in sharp contrast to the constitution and our pluralistic ethos awakened Indians to come forward to protect the idea of India and our secular democratic republic.
He recalled how he as part of the JNU fraternity fought against the emergency of 1975 and mentioned that the same spirit was getting reflected in the struggle to protect the constitution, secularism and culture of protest and dissent. He indicted the Modi regime for violating the constitution by suppressing dissent and reminded that Indian philosophy in our history flourished through debate, discussion and disagreement and not through uniformity and dictation. In that context, he urged the Modi regime to remain responsible to the constitution and people.
That repeated plea of Yechury in 2016 to protect the constitution from those who are engaged in the acts of insurrection against it is of paramount significance when people have made it a huge electoral and national issue. Long Live Comrade Sitaram Yechury having boldly articulated the revolutionary stand in defence of our constitution in 2016 itself.
S.N. Sahu served as an Officer on Special Duty to President of India K.R. Narayanan.
