Yechury And Fujimori: The Futile And The Efficacious

Dear Reader,

This week witnessed the deaths of two political figures — Sitaram Yechury and Alberto Fujimori — on two different sides of the planet, India and Peru respectively. In politics, legacies are made, broken, remembered, and sometimes manufactured in strikingly different ways.

Hagiographic obituaries for Yechury, the CPI-M leader, are being written by Communists (including the closet ones). The usual Nehruvian ecosystem is grieving for due to his loyalty to the Congress.

But for a dispassionate and objective observer, his political journey is a story of decline, with his party’s influence waning under his leadership — on all parameters.

Contrast this with the legacy of Peruvian leader Alberto Fujimori, who transformed Peru into a thriving economy while crushing violent communist insurgencies. He is being celebrated by Peruvians as a saviour of the country. The efficacy of this celebration comes through as genuine and well-deserved.

Prasenjit K Basu, in his article 'Yechury And Fujimori: The Futile And The Efficacious' talks about this in detail. He says that "a politician’s legacy is defined by his impact on the people, while a bureaucrat’s is shaped by his service to the organisation".

Read his incisive piece in full here.

- Anmol N Jain