COMMUNISTS BRUTALLY CRUSH OPPOSITION IN RURAL WEST BENGAL

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 KOLKATA 000345

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM PGOV PREF ASEC IN
SUBJECT: COMMUNISTS BRUTALLY CRUSH OPPOSITION IN RURAL WEST BENGAL

REF: A. A) KOLKATA 340 B) KOLKATA 0323 C) KOLKATA 0145 D) KOLKATA 104

B. E) KOLKATA 0095 F) KOLKATA 0092 G) KOLKATA 0088 H) 0017

C. I) CALCUTTA 0017 J) CALCUTTA 0011 K) 06 CALCUTTA 0578


1. (SBU) Summary: From November 6 to 11, Communist Party of
India-Marxist (CPM) activists conducted a brutal campaign to
"recapture" the rural West Bengal area of Nandigram from the
opposition Bhumi Uchhed Protirodh Committee (BUPC) (Committee
Against Eviction From the Land). Following initial CPM
successes in seizing villages through violent attacks on the
local BUPC supporters, the CPM-controlled state government
announced a "peace package" for the BUPC. However on November
10, CPM cadres continued their attacks and fired on unarmed BUPC
peace marchers - including women and children - killing three
people. WB Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi expressed dismay with
the CPM's strong-arm tactics and characterized their actions as
"unlawful and unacceptable." Objections even arose among the
CPM's Left Front allies, who issued a joint statement saying
that the responsibility for Nandigram lay with the CPM alone.
Police remained mute spectators throughout much of the violence
in Nandigram and only took action against local artists,
academics and intellectuals, arresting them when they conducted
a peaceful protest in Kolkata. Additional protests occurred on
November 12, when opposition parties Trinamul Congress,
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and others imposed a general strike
(bandh) throughout West Bengal, which resulted in more arrests
of protesters and additional violence.


2. (SBU) Summary Continued: Given the CPM's dominance in West
Bengal, it is unlikely that it will face any significant censure
or fallout from its brutal tactics in Nandigram. The GOI
leadership has refrained from criticizing the CPM, reflecting
again the great influence the CPM has in helping to maintain the
ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. West
Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is being seen as
the "emperor without clothes," who heads the state government
while abdicating the dirty business of political turf battles to
the dictates of the party. The CPM also gave short shrift to
its urban intellectual supporters, arresting those that
protested and resorting to Stalinist measures of intimidation
and murder to ensure that its rural political base remained
intact. End Summary.

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THE CPM DROPS THE HAMMER AND SICKLE IN NANDIGRAM
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3. (U) Disregarding public outrage and protests, the CPM's
cadre-army recaptured Nandigram from the BUPC during November
6-11 as state and Central Reserve Force Police (CRPF) watched.
The CPM's extensive campaign was well coordinate with three
separate groups, each with over 200 CPM activists, entering the
Nandigram area from various directions on November 7. The CPM
pulled these men from other districts in West Bengal, including
notorious figures such as Sukur Ali and Tapan Gosh, who have
warrants pending for their involvement in an earlier 2001
massacre of Trinamul Congress supporters in Chhoto Angaria
village. Calling this a "homecoming" for its evicted
supporters, the CPM militias attacked villagers supporting the
BUPC, forced them to leave their homes, and burned their
property. Following the violence that erupted in Nandigram on
November 6 (Ref. A),this latest onslaught enabled the CPM to
regain most of the territory it lost to the BUPC in January of
this year. The official death toll was five, with reports of
numerous people injured and raped.

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VIOLENCE IS "PEACE"
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4. (U) On November 8, once certain of the CPM's victory, the
GOWB announced a "peace package" for the BUPC: compensation for
victims of police shootings on March 14, a review of criminal
cases registered during the violent protests, and withdrawal of
cases against those who may have been falsely accused. The BUPC
in return allowed the police to set up camps in Nandigram and
the freedom to search for suspected Maoists. However, WB Home
Secretary P.R. Ray said repeatedly that there was no evidence of

SIPDIS
Maoist insurgents in Nandigram.


KOLKATA 00000345 002 OF 003



5. (U) Although the peace package was announced, CPM workers
continued their attacks. On November 10, CPM cadres fired on
unarmed BUPC peace protestors - including women and children --
from the villages of Nandigram Bazar, Garchakraberia and
Sonachura, killing three. BUPC supporters claimed that the
police offered no protection to the marchers even though they
had asked the police for assistance in advance. The CPM
allegedly also took 300 of the marchers hostage for use as human
shields in subsequent operations against BUPC-occupied villages.
The same day at Satengabari, CPM cadres shot a woman in both
legs and then reportedly raped her and her two daughters. There
are unconfirmed reports of a large number of bodies being taken
away and dumped by CPM supporters. The scope and intensity of
the terror forced many BUPC supporters to feign being CPM
loyalists, while the rest fled to relief camps.

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STIFLING DISSENT
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6. (U) The CPM also attacked those who protested the violence
perpetrated by their workers. After the initial attacks had
taken place, WB Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi issued a November 9
statement expressing dismay at the CPM's action and termed it
"unlawful and unacceptable." The CPM leadership quickly and
publicly criticized Gandhi for being partisan and acting outside
of his constitutional mandate. Subsequently, Gandhi called on
Former Chief Minister Jyoti Basu expressing full confidence in
him (implying a lack of confidence in Chief Minister Buddhadeb
Bhattacharjee) and requested him to restore peace in Nandigram.
During November 11-12, well-known intellectuals and cultural
figures (including Leftists) in Kolkata organized processions
protesting the Nandigram operation. Some protesters were
arrested by police during a "lathi charge" (beating with sticks)
and released later.


7. (U) After the attacks, the state CPM leadership claimed
"peace" had finally descended on Nandigram. However, the CPM's
Left Front allies (Communist Party of India (CPI),Forward Bloc
and Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP)) upset by the violence
issued a statement saying the responsibility for Nandigram
rested with the CPM alone. RSP Minister Kshiti Goswami
announced his wish to resign from the Left Front cabinet to
protest CPM's atrocities in Nandigram.


8. (U) Opposition parties responded by calling for strikes
(bandh). The Trinamul Congress initially announced a program of
indefinite "Bangla achal" (Bengal to a standstill) and on
November 12, supported a bandh called by the leftist Socialist
Unity Center for India (SUCI),the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
and the Congress Party. The public response to the strike was
spontaneous and widespread. Train and road transport services
were paralyzed, and an attack on reporters from a Bengali daily
(pro-CPM Aaj Kaal) was reported. Clashes between strike
supporters and opponents were reported from North Bengal,
particularly Cooch Behar. About seven buses in the state were
damaged. More than 300 bandh supporters were arrested all over
West Bengal. However, SUCI and the BJP called off the second
day of their scheduled strike on November 13, while Trinamul
leader Mamata Banerjee toned down her rhetoric and said that her
party's program would be not to immobilize the people but to
hamper the government's functioning. On November 13, SUCI
observed "Martyrs' Day" for the Nandigram victims, and Trinamul
scheduled protests at government offices, but the state slowly
returned to normal. Civil society leaders and Kolkata's
intellectuals have planned a massive non-partisan rally in
Kolkata on November 14 and Banerjee announced that she would
participate in the rally without her party flag. Given the
CPM's power, the opposition has few options for building on the
general outrage over Nandigram, aside from token protests.

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MASTER PLAN
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9. (SBU) Post's contacts said that the CPM's Delhi and West
Bengal leadership planned the Nandigram operation in utmost
secrecy over a span of three days prior to the attack. While
instructions on the ground were issued to armed cadres by the

KOLKATA 00000345 003 OF 003


area's district leaders, CPM General Secretary Prakash Karat was
apparently fully informed of the plans. At the state level,
labor leader and Central Committee Member Shyamal Chakrabarty
took the lead in directing the district leaders and cadre-army.
Chief Minister Bhattacharjee, who is in charge of police,
reportedly held them back while the CPM supporters attacked.
The CRPF, deployed by the national government but permitted to
function only under the state government's instructions, was
prevented from entering Nandigram by CPM activists until after
the CPM had regained control. Also during the violence, members
of the press, opposition leaders and human rights activists were
prevented from entering the area.

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COMMENT
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10. (SBU) The CPM was brutal in its Stalinist tactics of murder
and intimidation to ensure that its rural political base
remained intact in Nandigram. With the CPM's dominance in the
state, the opposition has been unable to respond effectively.
Pictures of anti-CPM leaders in Nandigram forced to wave CPM's
red flags by the CPM activists and commenting to the press "What
else can I do?" summed up the mood of hopelessness. Also
notable was the muted response of the national UPA government.
Few GOI leaders have made public statements on the Nandigram
attacks, aside from some critical comments by Information and
Broadcasting Minister PR Dasmunshi. Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh and Minister for External Affairs and West Bengal Congress
MP Pranab Mukherjee have said little about the violence. The
reticence of the Congress Party and its coalition partners in
the UPA government to castigate the CPM appears to be another
example of the CPM's influence on the weak national government.
According to Trinamul Congress MP Dinesh Trivedi, the Congress
is more worried about keeping the CPM's support, which allows
the UPA coalition to govern, than holding the CPM accountable
for its actions in Nandigram.


11. (SBU) Comment Continued: CPM leaders appear unconcerned
about the little criticism they have faced, including from many
intellectuals who until recently backed the party. Similarly,
CPM leaders seem unfazed at the prospect of their smaller
Leftist partners possibly breaking away from the Left Front.
The state leadership repeatedly emphasized it was happy with the
party's success in restoring "peace" and in sending CPM
supporters back to their homes in Nandigram. The perceived
success in Nandigram was a boost to the morale of the low-level
party workers in the run-up to the 2008 village-level panchayat
polls, when these cadres again will be mobilized to perform
their "duties" for the party. The operation was also a message
to dissenting village populations in other districts (where many
ration riots have been occurring) that they should toe the party
line or face the consequences.


12. (SBU) Comment Continued: Also, the apparent rift between
the CPM's "Bengal group" and the national leadership of Prakash
Karat that had arisen over the issue of the U.S.-India nuclear
deal appears to have been addressed by the Nandigram operation.
Karat and the CPM's central leadership reportedly directed the
attacks and in taking decisive, ruthless action to settle the
Nandigram question, left Bhattacharjee looking irrelevant. With
the resulting condemnation being so limited, the Karat faction
will now claim a victory for the CPM, strengthening their
position over Bhattacharjee and others in the Bengal group when
it comes to speaking for the party.
JARDINE