Before Jahangirpuri, 5 times Brinda Karat stood out as a neta
India Today
CPM leader Brinda Karat has previously forced Air India to withdraw mini-skirts as mandatory uniform for women, taken on yog-guru Baba Ramdev and also gave a tough time to Tamil Nadu police.
A viral video showed Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) leader Brinda Karat blocking a bulldozer in Delhi's Jahangirpuri. The bulldozer was there to carry out demolition of illegal structures as part of Delhi municipal corporation’s “anti-encroachment drive” in Jahangirpuri, which was the site of violence during the Hanuman Jayanti procession on Saturday.
Brinda Karat blocked a bulldozer waving the copy of the Supreme Court order that stayed the municipal corporation’s drive on Wednesday. The video captured dramatic scenes of a tense over two-hour standoff between the combative CPM leader and the civic authorities.
However, this was not the first time that Brinda Karat played the neta-activist. She has previously forced the Air India to withdraw mini-skirts as mandatory uniform for women, taken on yog-guru Baba Ramdev, gave a tough time to Tamil Nadu police, attempted to coach the Chief Justice of India (CJI) and led a delegation over the custodial death of Father Stan Swamy demanding the repeal of the anti-terror law.
After graduating from the Delhi University’s Miranda House, Brinda Karat joined the London office of the Air India in 1967. While in London, she objected to mandatory wearing of mini-skirt for women staffers.
She launched a protest against the code of mini-skirt uniform. The Air India management was forced to amend its code and give women employees a choice a saree or a skirt. This has been the practice ever since.
On her return to India in 1971, she joined the CPM on the advice of Jyoti Basu, the former West Bengal chief minister.
