The United Naga Council (UNC) Peace Committee and the Naga Peoples Movement for Human Rights (NPMHR) said they are at a loss of words to express their “shock and sadness” to hear the passing away of their revered veteran comrade Sitaram Yechury, the general secretary of CPI(M) and former Rajya Sabha MP, in New Delhi on September 12, 2024.
The UNC Peace Committee, in its condolence message said Sitaram Yechury was a genuine person who sincerely worked for peace and justice. The committee then shared the grief of the bereaved family members.
In a separate message, the NPMHR said Sitaram Yechury was its friend from his days as a student leader at JNU, who would not only listen to the complaints of humiliating stories of the Naga people at a time when nobody believed or even wanted to hear but also extended solidarity and shared his concerns against oppressive forces.
"And as time went by, we grew apart, but NPMHR carried with us those memories and his name wherever we went", the statement also said.
It was only just very recently, when NPMHR decided to call on the CPI(M) and reconnect with him as someone on whom "we can always depend on, in times of trouble and needs, specially in the backdrop of the Indo-Naga peace talks which have run into troubled-waters, that we visited his official residence, which houses the CPI(M) office sometime in the early part of July this year, just a couple of months ago, that we had a long sitting with some of his colleagues and Politburo members, although he was away from Delhi on that very particular day". Nevertheless, "we had worked out a certain understanding which he himself came to work and improve upon, for which we were to follow up," the statement added.
Unfortunately, the NPMHR said it it heard that he had developed some health issues and was admitted at AIIMS, for treatment, to which we never even imagined that fate and destiny was going to "tear us apart forever", till news of his passing away were splashed all over the print and electronic media nation-wide, leaving us completely dumb-founded.
The message then said, "Farewell comrade and elder brother! May you find peace – an everlasting peace, even as the rest of us find ourselves orphaned. But the works you have done and the memories you leave behind will ever be written in our hearts with love, affection and respect of the highest order, as Nagas in general remember him as a steadfast all-weather friend".
It added, "With our deepest condolences to Mrs. Seema Chisti Yechury, his daughter Akhila Yechury and all his near and dear ones, as we equally share this pain and loss with the CPI(M) Politburo and all members of the party".
