Prakash Karat

Member, Polit Bureau Communist Party of India (Marxist).

67 years as on May 2015 (Date of Birth: 07/02/1948)

 Graduated from Madras Christian College, B.A. (Economics). Awarded medal for best outgoing student for all-round activities.

Post-Graduate degree M.Sc (Politics) from University of Edinburgh, Scotland.  He was rusticated from the University in 1970 for an anti-apartheid protest action which was suspended on good behaviour. 

Joined CPI(M) in 1970.

Worked as an aide to A.K. Gopalan, leader of the CPI(M) Parliamentary groups for two years. 

President     —     Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (1972-1973)

President     —     Students Federation of India (1974-1979)

Worked underground for one a half years during the Emergency in India in 1975-76.

Arrested twice. Spent 8 days in prison.

Secretary     —     Delhi State Committee of CPI(M)  (1982-1985)

Elected to Central Committee of CPI(M) in 1985

Elected to Polit Bureau of CPI(M) in 1992.

Elected General Secretary in the 18th Congress of the Party in 2005.

Re-elected as General Secretary in the 19th Congress in 2008 and again at the 20th Congress in 2012

Currently, Member, Polit Bureau

Editor, People’s Democracy, English journal of the CPI(M).

Managing Director of LeftWord Books, a leading Leftwingpublishing house.

Author of books:  i ) Language, Nationality and Politics in India (1972); ii) Edited “A World to Win” Essays on the Communist Manifesto (1999); iii) Edited “Across Time and Continents: A tribute to Victor Kiernan” (2003); iv) Subordinate Ally: The Nuclear Deal and India-US Strategic Relations (2008)