yum error: NameError: global name 'inspect' is not defined

Issue

yum command fails with the following error

$ yum clean all
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/bin/yum", line 29, in ?
yummain.user_main(sys.argv[1:], exit_code=True)
File "/usr/share/yum-cli/yummain.py", line 309, in user_main
errcode = main(args)
File "/usr/share/yum-cli/yummain.py", line 157, in main
base.getOptionsConfig(args)
File "/usr/share/yum-cli/cli.py", line 187, in getOptionsConfig
self.conf
File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/yum/init.py", line 665, in
conf = property(fget=lambda self: self._getConfig(),
File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/yum/init.py", line 218, in _getConfig
startupconf = config.readStartupConfig(fn, root)
File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/yum/config.py", line 774, in readStartupConfig
confpp_obj = ConfigPreProcessor(configfile)
File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/yum/parser.py", line 86, in init
fo = self._pushfile( url )
File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/yum/parser.py", line 186, in _pushfile
fo = urlgrabber.grabber.urlopen(absurl)
File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/urlgrabber/grabber.py", line 612, in urlopen
return default_grabber.urlopen(url, **kwargs)
File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/urlgrabber/grabber.py", line 893, in urlopen
return self._retry(opts, retryfunc, url)
File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/urlgrabber/grabber.py", line 854, in _retry
r = apply(func, (opts,) + args, {})
File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/urlgrabber/grabber.py", line 892, in retryfunc
return URLGrabberFileObject(url, filename=None, opts=opts)
File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/urlgrabber/grabber.py", line 1010, in __init__
self._do_open()
File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/urlgrabber/grabber.py", line 1075, in _do_open
opener = self._get_opener()
File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/urlgrabber/grabber.py", line 1066, in _get_opener
self._opener = CachedOpenerDirector(ssl_factory, *handlers)
File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/urlgrabber/grabber.py", line 1354, in CachedOpenerDirector
opener = ssl_factory.create_opener(*handlers)
File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/urlgrabber/sslfactory.py", line 63, in create_opener
return m2urllib2.build_opener(self.ssl_context, *handlers)
File "/usr/lib64/python2.4/site-packages/M2Crypto/m2urllib2.py", line 128, in build_opener
if inspect.isclass(check):
NameError: global name 'inspect' is not defined