NEW DELHI, Oct 17: Brinda Karat's decision to withdraw from the Communist Party of India (Marxist)'s Central Committee in protest against poor representation to women in the party top brass has blown the lid off the predominant male bias in the Left which is quick to take a moralistic stance on issues.Party members attending the 16th CPI (M) Congress in Calcutta last week were shell-shocked when Karat did the unthinkable: went up to the podium and struck herself off the list of CC members. And worse, reprimanded the leadership for its anti-women stance.For a party which spearheaded the campaign for 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament and state legislatures, the embarrassment of fending off a wave of criticism from its women activists is getting too much to handle. The defence is rather weak. One only has to look at the figures: there are only three women as against 64 men in the CC.The CPI (M) leadership's reaction to Karat's rebellion was itself revelatory. Quite apart from attackingKarat for the ``embarassment'' she had caused, senior leaders spewed more anti-women rhetoric and dismissed the issue as a media creation. This has left women activists fuming. If party boss Harkishan Singh Surjeet's comments today are anything to go by, it is not difficult to see why the women feel the way they do. ``Women's representation in the party is not an issue'', he said, while ``thanking the media for taking up the cause of the women''!Adding that ``ridiculous arguments'' are being advanced on the men versus women controversy, he said that the real issue was one of competence and effectiveness. He went on to argue his case drawing on the parallel of the Chinese Communist Party. ``There are no women in their politburo.'' Surjeet said it was ``not easy'' to find women who fit the bill. They had to have the requisite experience at the district and state committee levels before they could be considered for responsibilities at the national level.Karat, who heads the All India Democratic Women'sAssociation (AIDWA), the party's women's wing, is not talking. But women activists have been more vocal in expressing their unhappiness over the issue.``Ultimately the CPI (M) is not so different from the so-called bourgeois parties that they are so fond of bashing, if its leadership has such a poor opinion of its women activists'', said an AIDWA member.
