For Brinda, time to take a hard look at party

Kolkata, March 10: After the euphoria over the women’s bill, it may be time for Brinda Karat to ensure that charity begins at home. Woefully under-represented in their own party committees, the CPI(M)’s women leaders now want a larger share of the party’s plum posts.

“It’s good that the women’s reservation bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha. Now there will be 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and later in state Assemblies, provided the bill is passed in the lower House. But in different strata of our own organisation, representation of women is not quite up to the mark. There should be a larger participation of our women members in the higher strata of the organisation,” said Shymali Gupta.

Gupta, who was inducted into the Bengal CPI(M) secretariat, the highest decision-making body at the state level, only in January this year, today recounted how Brinda had kicked off a storm in the organisation during the party congress in 1998 in Kolkata by voicing her protest against the low representation of women members in the central committee.

“I still remember how Brinda had vented her ire in the 1998 party congress, demanding a larger representation of women members in the central committee,” Gupta said, adding that she was the first woman to become a member in the key decision-making body at the state level.

“I cannot remember any other woman rising to become a member of the state secretariat,” she said. Gupta was inducted as a party member in 1962 but was elevated to be a state committee member only in 1985. Going by the CPI(M)’s organisational set-up, representation of women members is low. Starting with the CPI(M)’s central committee, the highest decision-making body, to its 19 district committees across Bengal, the participation of women is almost negligible.

In the 85-member central committee, only 13 are women, of which two are from Bengal. Other than Gupta, Banani Biswas is the member in the central committee.

In the 16-member politburo, Brinda, wife of CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat, happens to be the lone member and that, too, for the first time. Contacted, Brinda refused to comment. Sudha Sundaram, central committee member and the president of the All India Democratic Women’s Association, said: “We do believe the leadership will rise to the occasion after the entry of women into the corridors of power.”

In the 84-member Bengal state committee of the CPI(M), only eight are women. In the 18-member state secretariat, Gupta is the lone woman representative.

“There is no denying that representation of women members in our different strata of the organisation is abysmally low. We have been seeking more women members since they are as organisationally active as men,” said Biswas.

CPI(M) politburo member and Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar admitted that there was low representation of women in the organisation. “But we cannot induct members into the organisation according to our will. One has to go through a process before becoming a member,” he added.

CPI(M) central committee member and Citu all-India vice-president Basudeb Acharya, however, felt that more women members should be accommodated in the organisation.

“Three things —organisational capability, ideological stand and political maturity — are considered before inducting somebody into key posts. Women are more and more fulfilling the requirements these days and that is why we need to be liberal in inducting them,” he said.

Citu, he said, has decided to bring in 25 per cent women delegates for its upcoming all-India conference in Chandigarh.


Barun Ghosh, The Telegraph