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)
  • Married to Brinda Karat,  Member of the Polit Bureau of the CPI(M).