Greater love has no comrade than this that he lays down his career for his party. Mr Sitaram Yechuri, a member of the politburo of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the latter’s most telegenic face, may not quite approve of the Biblical resonance of the first sentence but the fact that he has set aside a major career step because of the diktat from his party is undeniable. There was a move afoot to have Mr Yechuri elected to the upper house of parliament. But the party shot down such a proposal even before it had gathered momentum. The suggestion had in it much good sense. After the elevation of Mr Somnath Chatterjee to the position of speaker of the Lok Sabha, the left has lost its most effective speaker on the floor of the house. Mr Yechuri would have been Mr Chatterjee’s best replacement. Mr Yechuri is articulate, most of the time eminently sensible, quiet but firm. These qualities would have stood him in good stead as a parliamentarian. He could have served his apprenticeship in the Rajya Sabha and then come to the Lok Sabha to win his laurels. All these factors were ignored as Mr Yechuri’s work as an apparatchik in Gopalan Bhavan was considered much more valuable than the role he could play in parliament.

If Mr Yechuri had been allowed to go to the Rajya Sabha, he would by no means be the first leading party bureaucrat to be on the floor of parliament. P. Sundaraya and M. Basavapunniah, both legendary figures in the annals of the CPI(M), and Bhupesh Gupta of the Communist Party of India, did valuable work for their respective parties both within and without parliament. There is no reason to assume that Mr Yechuri could not have performed a similar role. There is another important point here. In a democratic polity like India, the parliament is the principal — if not the only — forum of political and ideological battles. That battle can acquire legitimacy by winning support from the people in the elections. The proper and legitimate stage for a politician in a democracy is the parliament to which people send their representatives. Mr Yechuri has chosen to be a full-time politician but his work is carried out in the backroom of party offices. His exposure to the people is limited. He could have grown in stature if he had been allowed to emerge and work in parliament, the biggest political stage in India. It is unfortunate the CPI(M) thought otherwise. The refusal is a sign of the mistaken importance the CPI(M) assigns to its extra-parliamentary work. It is not a sign, one hopes, that the comrades are like crabs who pull down the one trying to get out of the creel.