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Transgender rights activist and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) vice president Akkai Padmashali has resigned from the party, citing the need to focus on organising and advocating for the rights of intersex, transgender and sexual minority communities at the state and national level.
In a resignation letter addressed to KPCC president DK Shivakumar on Monday, August 11, Akkai Padmashali expressed gratitude for being inducted into the party on September 20, 2020, and for holding positions including state general secretary and vice president.
Explaining her decision, she stated, “Knowing that the current socio, economic, political, educational, legal, social exclusion and systematic marginalisation from policies and systems of justice and society, I feel my social responsibility to ensure constitutional morality to organise and advocate for the rights of Intersex, Transgender and Sexual Minorities at the State and National level is a crucial need at this juncture for the movement.”
She also thanked Congress leaders for their support towards the struggles of transgender communities, sexual minorities, and sex workers’ communities.
Speaking to TNM after her resignation, Akkai said, “I think we are the most marginalised sections of society. I think being within a party is one, but coming out of the party also makes me… much more open and loud, that’s the only reason I took this decision. I want to be out of this political party system and be part of my movement.”
She added that she wanted to “create, bring and nurture very working-class leaders” and criticised the political climate, citing anti-transgender statements by US and Indian politicians. “The movement is much stronger than any other system. That’s the reason I took my decision to resign and to be fully involved with my movement,” she said.
Calling for political maturity on gender and sexuality issues, Akkai noted, “There are very few people who speak about politics of gender and sexuality… every political party should speak about, not the politics of tokenism, but their inner determination to mainstream the issues of gender and sexual minorities.