by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group
The ‘election’ of Sitaram Yechuri as the fifth general secretary of the CPI(M) at the just concluded 21st party congress at Vishakhapatnam, and the obvious though unstated defeat of S. Ramachandra Pillai, a proxy of outgoing chief Prakash Karat, may acquire more than symbolic value if Yechuri can prove himself to be an agent of change. He has age on his side, being 15 years younger than 77-year-old Pillai. Yechuri is also a pukka Delhi-ite, educated in St. Stephens and JNU, and is a fluent speaker in Hindi and Bengali, in addition to his native Telugu. He is as much a member of the capital’s Lutyen circuit as was the late Harkishan Singh Surjeet, party general secretary prior to Karat. Pillai’s credentials on these scores obviously do not add up to even a fraction of Yechury’s. But Karat is an enigma.
The ‘election’ of Sitaram Yechuri as the fifth general secretary of the CPI(M) at the just concluded 21st party congress at Vishakhapatnam, and the obvious though unstated defeat of S. Ramachandra Pillai, a proxy of outgoing chief Prakash Karat, may acquire more than symbolic value if Yechuri can prove himself to be an agent of change. He has age on his side, being 15 years younger than 77-year-old Pillai. Yechuri is also a pukka Delhi-ite, educated in St. Stephens and JNU, and is a fluent speaker in Hindi and Bengali, in addition to his native Telugu. He is as much a member of the capital’s Lutyen circuit as was the late Harkishan Singh Surjeet, party general secretary prior to Karat. Pillai’s credentials on these scores obviously do not add up to even a fraction of Yechury’s. But Karat is an enigma.
