Suraiya launches political party

By Our Staff Reporter

KOCHI, JULY 10 Dr. Kamala Suraiya (Madhavikkutty and Kamala Das in her pre-Islamic days) is at it again.

At age 68 and with near-blind eyes, the poet and short-story writer, who stunned Kerala with her conversion to Islam in December last, has announced the launch of a new `national political party.' The Lok Seva Party (the Hindi name is to give the party a national appeal) which was initially christened God's Own Party (not meant to rhyme with God's own country) will strive for `love, sacrifice and service.'

The Lok Seva Party would contest all seats in the upcoming Assembly election, she told The Hindu. Dr. Suraiya who lost her deposit when she contested for the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat in 1984 (she secured around 1,700 votes), said she herself would be standing for election and also would be campaigning for her candidates. However, she foresees that her candidates might lose the election. `But their defeat would be the defeat of truth.'

The LSP would form committees in all districts in four months. She would be going on a tour of Canada, France and England shortly and would be back in September. After her return, she would plunge into the LSP work full-time. A large national convention would be called where the future programmes of the party would be decided.

Dr. Suraiya pointed out that it was young people particularly college girls who had inspired her to launch the party. After her speech at a Bangalore function recently, college girls had swamped her and wanted her to start something for them. She had been considering launching of a party for sometime now. But the immediate provocation, she said, was the starvation death of a woman in Kerala which had pained her deeply. Had she known that the woman was starving, she would have taken a bag of rice in a car and handed it to her. But the media would not let the people know of such miseries; they were only interested in flimsy things.

The focus of the new party would be on the youth and she counted on the support of the young people who according to her were very progressive and intelligent. `I will try to be a flame in the coming days and amass all those who have lost faith in today's political parties.'

She has invited all women to join her party. `I will fight for you until my death,' she assures them. Women, irrespective of their religions, were like cows in a cow-shed. She wants them to burn the `cow-sheds' and get out of them.

The new party would aim at a new political culture. It would strive for justice to the downtrodden, aid to the depressed, emancipation of the suffering women, hope for the progressive youth, a corruption-free society and a good administration.

She said in the past she had offers aplenty from several political parties, but she had not bothered to join any of them. `But I have all along been political, though I never carried a flag.' She said she knew pretty well that she was entering a `padma vyooham' by launching the party.

`I have carried out a number of experiments with my life. I have been and will be a revolutionary. I have always stood for what I thought was right,' she says.

After her religious experiment seven months back, it is a political experiment now for Dr. Kamala Suraiya.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Southern States
Previous : 'BJP not averse to a broader democratic front'
Next     : CBCI chief takes exception to Joseph's remarks