Prakash Karat

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Prakash Karat
Prakash Karat
General Secretary, Communist Party of India (Marxist)
Preceded by	Harkishan Singh Surjeet

Political party	Communist Party of India (Marxist)
Spouse	Brinda Karat
Residence	New Delhi
Religion	Atheist
As of January 27, 2007 Source: [1]

Prakash Karat (Malayalam: പ്രകാശ് കാരാത്) is communist politician from India. The 56-year old Prakash Karat was elected as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on the 11th of April, 2005, and re-elected as General Secretary on the 19th party Congress of 3rd April, 2008.^[1]^[2]^[3]

1 Education and early career
2 Communist Party
3 Party Leader
4 Academia
5 References

[edit] Education and early career

Prakash Karat was educated at the Madras Christian College where he won the prize for the best all round achievement and was a resident of St.Thomas's Hall. He then went on to the University of Edinburgh to study politics. His 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]

[edit] Communist Party

He returned to India in 1970 and joined the CPI(M). He began working as an aide to the party leader A K Gopalan. He was involved with student politics and was elected President of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Student's Union. He also became the first 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] Party Leader

He 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]

[edit] Academia

Since 1992, Karat has been on the editorial board of CPI(M)'s academic journal, The Marxist. He is also the managing director of Leftword. He is the author of three books.