Prakash Karat (Malayalam: പ്രകാശ് കാരാട്ട് ), born in February 7, 1948 (On official record October 19, 1947) in Rangoon, Burma) is a communist politician in India and the current General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) since 2005.[1][2][3]
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[edit]Education and early career
Prakash Karat was born in Rangoon (Yangon), Burma on February 7, 1948. His father worked with the British Railways. The Karats areNairs from Elappully, Palakkad, Kerala. Prakash Karat lost his father while still in school (1st Standard) and moved to Madras with his mother Radha and sister Kamala. The sister died in her teens and the mother took up a job as an LIC (Life Insurance Corporation of India) agent. Karat was educated at the Madras Christian College as an undergraduate student of Economics,where he won the prize for the best all round achievement and was a resident of St.Thomas's Hall. He graduated with a gold medal and won a scholarship to Britain’s University of Edinburgh, for a Masters’ degree in politics.
In 1970 he received an MSc degree from Edinburgh University for the thesis "Language and politics in modern India".
It was at Edinburgh that he met with Professor Victor Kiernan, the famed Marxist and became a strident communist. His political activism began with anti-apartheid protests at the University, for which he was expelled. The expulsion was later reversed based on his good behaviour.[4]. Karat returned to India in 1970 and joined the premier institution, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Karat was one of the founders of the Students Federation of India (SFI), the CPM’s student wing, in Jawaharlal Nehru University. He was involved with student politics and was elected the third president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Student's Union. He also became the second President of the Students Federation of India between 1974 to 1979. He worked underground for one and a half years during the Emergency in India in 1975-76. He was arrested twice and spent 8 days in prison.[4].
[edit]Personal life
Prakash Karat married Brinda Karat, then a party colleague, in 1975. Brinda was with Air India in london, before she became a CPI(M) fulltimer. Brinda has also risen through party ranks and both are active members of CPI(M). They have decided that they will not have any children in the wider interest of the party.
[edit]Communist Party
After returning to India in 1970, Karat joined the Jawaharlal Nehru University and thereafter Communist Party of India (Marxist). He began working as an aide to the party leader A K Gopalan, the legendary communist leader from Kerala. Prakash Karat was elected to the Central Committee of the CPI (M) in 1985 and became a member of the ‘Politburo’ in 1992. He took over as the youngest-ever General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in 2005 at Talkatora Stadium in Delhi.
[edit]Party Leader
Karat was elected to the Central Committee of the CPI (M) in 1985 and became a member of the Politburo in 1992. The Politburo is the key decision making wing of the party. In 2005, he was elected General Secretary, effectively the most influential position in the party structure. Some analysts claim that Karat ushers in a new generational change within the CPI (M).[5] In a recent interview he was informed about the sorry state of Indian workers in the Gulf countries like UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, etc., where they are treated like slaves and not paid salaries for months and passports impounded by employers. He agreed that it was more important to raise the Indian workers status worldwide rather than burst nuclear bombs.
