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The Rediff Interview/Brinda Karat

'As far as the housewife in Delhi is concerned, she has already mentally replaced the BJP's election symbol of lotus with the onion'

Brinda Karat, till recently member of the central committee of the Communist Party of India-Marxist, has never minced her words, be it vocalising her thoughts on the Women's Reservation Bill or the education policy sought to be introduced by the Bharatiya Janata Party government, or even gender discrimination, in protest against which she resigned from her party's central committee. A strong votary of women's issues, and a staunch critic of the BJP, she spoke about the central government's mistakes, in an interview with Suhasini Haider. An excerpt:

What is your objection to the education plan proposed by Murli Manohar Joshi at the state education minister's meet?

We object to the fact that in the name of Indian culture and spiritualism, they want to homogenise in a very sectarian and communal way, India's pluralistic tradition and its multidimensional cultures. The basis of India's identity lies precisely in this pluralistic tradition, but the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh agenda is really about homogenising all this diversity into a very set approach, and package it in a very narrow concept of what religion means.

Basically it's really the RSS version of the Manusmriti that they are trying to push into the syllabus. It's obvious from the fact that when they say Indian culture, they only mean the Vedas and the Upanishads. According to them, the only language of Indian culture is Sanskrit. And what is equally condemnable is that our Constitution has guaranteed certain rights to our minority educational institutions, and the recommendations that have been put forward in this education ministers' conference, is an amendment to these very rights.

You don't have to belong to a political party, or have any great political convictions, but if you believe in India's unity, a line has to be drawn and the way the RSS agenda is being pushed into the entire educational system in this country wherever the BJP is ruling, it is something of great concern for all of us.

For instance, in Uttar Pradesh, they have altered the general knowledge paper to include questions like, 'When was the (Ram Janmabhoomi) temple destroyed and the Babri Masjid built?' and 'How many kar sevaks were killed when they were demolishing the symbol of the invader?' The RSS agenda has nothing to do with spiritualism, but with the spirit of communalism.

The other thing they say is that though there will be no differentiation on the basis of gender at a young age, but as they grow older, girls will be taught home-keeping separately. They don't want to teach them engineering or science. This is just part of the RSS agenda that a woman's place is in the home.

And every action, every public statement of the leaders of the BJP is exposing the fact that they are really just a front organisation for the RSS.

Another issue that you have taken up recently is the dramatic price rise of vegetables and other inflationary trends in the market. What do you attribute this to?

The first reason is the Budget. At the time of the passing of the Budget, we had said this is an inflationary Budget, this is definitely a price-rise Budget: the huge deficit plus indirect taxes on many commodities along with the hikes in cargo were all reasons. At that time the government had said that the price rise is seasonal. And it's a fact that there was a 14-15 pc shortfall in food production at that time, but the price increase has been 300 pc, even 400 pc. So they cannot just blame it on seasonal fluctuations, but something else.

The BJP's own political base is largely the trader community and therefore they do nothing to prevent black-marketing, to prevent profiteering and hoarding. We saw this even during the mustard oil adulteration racket last month. When the scam first broke in Delhi, the BJP government was just loath to raid many of the big traders. Because their social base is such, these are people that they want to protect. What we require is a very strong government effort at controlling prices, which is just not happening.

Quite frankly, as far as the housewife in Delhi is concerned, she has already mentally replaced the BJP election symbol of the lotus with the onion. Because that's what the BJP government symbolises today: the onion -- you just look at it and it makes you cry. And they are going to pay dearly for this at the elections (next month).

What was the outcome of the recent CPI-M convention at Calcutta?

Basically what has emerged is the need for independent activity of the CPI-M, the importance of Left unity in a situation like this, the crucial struggle at this time is to fight the communal forces, to fight the BJP, for which we are trying to strengthen the secular forces and the Third Front. But the real thrust of the party congress was to stress on the struggle, the independent struggle under the party's leadership to take up issues which have made the lives of the Indian people so very, very bad.

As far as the Women's Reservation Bill goes, it doesn't look like the government will be able to reach a consensus to table the bill in Parliament. Don't you think you should look at alternatives to the Bill now?

Alternatives are always there, in terms of mobilising political parties, widening the base, and so on. But we are very clear, that as far as this bill is concerned, the bill has to go as it is. There's no question of any alternative. Every single political party in Parliament, in their manifesto has said that they are committed to passing the Bill. How can you discuss the bill if you don't even table it?

This is an example of the flawed and perverted reasoning of the Bharatiya Janata Party government, that they are not even going to introduce the Bill unless they can form a consensus on it. And the day after the Parliamentary Affairs Minister Madan Lal Khurana made this outrageous statement, the then information and broadcasting minister Sushma Swaraj brings out the Prasar Bharati bill without any consensus, and passes it through an ordinance! This is nothing but sheer hypocrisy on the part of the leading party.

And then you have the appalling opposition to the Bill from Mulayam Singh Yadav and Laloo Prasad Yadav, on the basis of representation of OBC women. Why? All these years the OBC women had no meaning in their politics. Through all this what emerges is that on this issue there are new records being set on hypocrisy and non-accountability in Indian politics. Because if a political party has written something very clearly in its manifesto, and then it starts mobilising against that, where are we headed then?

So to protest against this, on the first day of Parliament, November 31, about 70 to 80 organisations of trade unions, women's organisations and students and youth will be demonstrating at centres all over the country. And then on December 4 we will have a convention in Delhi of women from all over the country asking all these politicians not to sabotage the Bill.

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