New Delhi, Aug. 10: CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury bowed out of the Rajya Sabha today with one call ringing in his ears - persuade "your" party known for committing "historic blunders" to adopt a more pragmatic approach, an echo of the Bengal communists' line.
"If the Constitution of India can be amended, then why can't the CPM constitution be altered to allow a third term (to Yechury)?" asked Samajwadi Party MP Ram Gopal Yadav, choking with emotion.
Yadav was consoled by Yechury, who was seated next to him, and junior parliamentary affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, who ran across to the Samajwadi Party leader's side.
The Akali Dal's Naresh Gujral brought up the reference to "historic blunders".
"His (Yechury's) party has, unfortunately, shrunk. Even in this House, it is shrinking further, because his party is known for committing historic blunders. This is another historic blunder that they have now committed by denying him a third term, which was very much there on the platter for him," Gujral said.
The leader of the House, Arun Jaitley of the BJP who has been Yechury's contemporary in politics since their days in Delhi University in the 70s, acknowledged that every section of the Rajya Sabha would "miss his absence" and hoped that "sooner than later, he comes back".
Jaitley said the CPM was too idealistic and took a personal dig at Yechury. "On a lighter note, if I may say so, I think, he has never had the opportunity of being in government and, therefore, he has the privilege and the liberty of making several suggestions that are idealistic but unimplementable," Jaitley said.
Congress MP Ghulam Nabi Azad stressed the need for the CPM to become more practical instead of remaining ensconced in theories. "Our loss and India's loss is your party's gain," he said, looking pointedly at Yechury, who dominated the limelight among the three Rajya Sabha members who retired today by virtue of the standing he enjoys in the House.
The other two are Debabrata Bandyopadhyay of the Trinamul Congress and Dilip Pandya of the BJP from Gujarat.
Bandyopadhyay briefly and Yechury at length made it a point to thank members of the Rajya Sabha secretariat for their unsung contribution.
In a clear indication that the Congress was still hopeful of doing business with the CPM though the Left party's dominant lobby is pushing for an Opposition coalition sans the Congress, Jairam Ramesh said: "The Left may not always be right, but the Left is absolutely essential for the survival of secular values in this country."
Ramesh - who along with Yechury during the days of the Congress-CPM alliance used to be referred to as the Jairam-Sitaram combo because of their role in drafting the common minimum programmes of the short-lived coalition government in 1996 and the much more successful 2004 UPA-Left experiment - recalled how he often used to call the communist leader "Sitaram Obituary" for bringing down the UPA-I directly and the UPA-II indirectly.
Yechury partook in the repartee, remembering that he used to refer to Ramesh as "Jairam Mortuary" because that is where his policies could land people.
Trinamul's Derek O'Brien acknowledged Yechury as a good striker in football parlance. O'Brien struck a personal note, saying his daughter had observed that "I am beginning to even look like you (Yechury) because I have stopped dyeing my hair".
The DMK's T. Siva said "Division No. 126" - the number allotted to Yechury at the time of voting - would now be given to someone else, but "we will see only Sitaram Yechury in that place".
With the end of Yechury's third term, the Left is likely to lose a front-row seat in the Rajya Sabha.
Admittedly not at ease with farewell speeches, Yechury used the occasion to once again remind people of the importance of preserving India's unity in diversity.
"When Swami Vivekananda talks of the Vedantic Mind in an Islamic body, that is the future of India.... It is only the syncretic evolution of India, we know today, that is our strength. If you try to impose uniformity - whether it is religious uniformity or it is linguistic uniformity or it is cultural uniformity - on our diversity, then this country can never remain together; it will only implode. Our country can strengthen only when we strengthen the bonds of commonality that run through our diversity."
