RECENT DEATHS IN NANDIGRAM HIGHLIGHT WEST BENGAL'S VIOLENT

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KOLKATA 000095

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM PGOV ASEC SOCI IN
SUBJECT: RECENT DEATHS IN NANDIGRAM HIGHLIGHT WEST BENGAL'S VIOLENT
LOCAL POLITICS

REF: A) KOLKATA 0092 B) KOLKATA 0088 C) CALCUTTA 0017 D) CALCUTTA 0011


1. (SBU) Summary: The March 14 killings in the rural West
Bengal district of Nandigram highlighted the truly violent
nature of grassroots politics in the state (Reftels).
Initially, the agitation was by local villagers opposed to the
GOWB's plans to acquire their land for a Special Economic Zone
(SEZ) but fundamentally, it was an issue within the state-ruling
Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) over local power and
influence. The violence was triggered in January when CPM
Member of Parliament (MP) and Haldia Development Authority (HDA)
Chairman Laxman Seth sent notices to villagers in the Nandigram
area that their land was to be acquired for a new SEZ to be
developed by the Indonesian corporation, the Salim Group. Seth
is recognized as the local "Godfather," who as HDA Chairman has
enriched himself through control of shipping, transport and real
estate in the area. The new SEZ offered an opportunity to
expand his personal fiefdom. Nandigram had historically been a
Leftist and CPM stronghold but fell outside the rapid
development occurring with the construction of the Haldia port
and petrochemical facilities under HDA's jurisdiction. The
locals objected to losing their land and broke from the Left
fold with anti-GOWB and anti-CPM agitations in January. A state
of siege arose after the initial clash in January, with the
villagers digging up roads and blocking access. This was an
affront to the CPM, and Chief Minister Bhattacharjee and the
state CPM leadership were pressured by the local CPM
functionaries to regain control of the area by having the police
enter and letting CPM enforcers intimidate the locals. India is
described as the "world's largest democracy," but as Nandigram
demonstrates, the mere size of the system does not always
correlate with the quality of the political process at the local
level. End Summary.




2. (SBU) The March 14 clash between police, supported by CPM
activists, and villagers in Nandigram resulted in the deaths of
at least 14 people and 71 injuries. While shocking, such
violence is not unknown to the area. Nandigram has historically
been a center for agitation even as far back as British rule.
The recent violence in Nandigram is strikingly similar to what
happened 65 years ago during a bloody struggle against the
British. A few miles from Nandigram, in Tamluk on December 17,
1942, the villagers announced the formation of the Tamluk
National Government as part of the "Quit India Movement" and
declared the area as "Free Zone" -- free from British control.
Ten days later, on December 26, Nandigram also declared itself
"free" and remained so for the next nine months. On September
27, 1943, the police opened fire in Nandigram, while trying to
bring the "free" areas back under British control. Four persons
were killed. A week later, nearly 20,000 people attacked the
Nandigram police outpost. Four more people were killed, when
the police fired to disperse the crowd.




3. (U) Even after Independence, agitation followed by violence
has been a frequently repeated pattern in West Bengal's
political dynamic. The late Sixties witnessed the Naxalbari, a
rural Maoist movement that turned violent, with ultra-Left
activists and the police brutally targeting each other. After
the CPM came to power in 1977, there were sporadic clashes
between Congress Party and Left supporters. More recently,
there have cases of violent political clashes between the
Trinamul Congress and the CPM. In 1999, 13 Trinamul workers
were hacked to death allegedly by CPM workers in a village
called Nanoor, about 100 miles northwest from Kolkata. In May
2000 Keshpur, located in the East Medinipur district, witnessed
large scale violence between Trinamul, with the support of some
Maoists, and CPM activists over local political dominance. The
violence resulted in 11 people being burnt to death and nearly
150 homes destroyed. Nine of those who died were Trinamul
workers, the others CPM. Later that year, the violence spilled
over to neighboring Garbeta where CPM workers burnt to death 11
Maoist activists.




4. (SBU) A few hundred miles away in Cooch Behar (in North
Bengal) at about the same time, a similar scene unfolded. In
the Mathabhanga area a group of people, allegedly Trinamul

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workers, tried to prevent voters casting their votes in a
panchayat by-election. In the ensuing clash between CPM and
Trinamul workers, three people were killed and five others
injured.




5. (SBU) Many see Nandigram's recent violence as triggered by
CPM MP Laxman Seth's overreaching to expand his HDA fiefdom.
According to Deputy Resident Editor of the Business Standard
Pradeep Gooptu (Protect),BBC Reporter Subir Bhaumick (Protect)
and others, Seth as the HDA Chairman has become effectively a
local "Godfather." Trucks traveling through the Haldia
development and port area must pay fees to Seth and his
organization. Seth reportedly controls the port and purposely
encourages delays to increase the fees of waiting trucks. In
addition, Seth has been fostering a construction boom, with new
colleges, hospitals, and businesses, from which he receives a
cut as well. Nandigram, neighboring Haldia, was unaffected by
the developments, but a new SEZ slated to be constructed by
Indonesian conglomerate Salim Group was to be under the HDA
jurisdiction.




6. (SBU) Nandigram had been a Left stronghold but when letters
were distributed by HDA telling the communities their land was
to be acquired for the SEZ, violence erupted on January 3 and
villagers attacked government officials and local CPM members.
The CPM activists gathered near Nandigram and on January 6-7
mounted a bloody response killing seven people. Following that
initial bout of violence, the police and CPM pulled back and
maintained a cordon around the area. The stand-off remained for
over two months and became an affront to local CPM leaders.
Opposition groups such as the Trinamul Congress, Congress Party,
fringe Maoists groups like the CPI-Maoist, and even the Muslim
Jamiat-e-Ulema Hind quickly extended support to the villagers,
hoping to gain a political foothold within the CPM's traditional
rural constituency. According to Bhaumick, local leaders like
Seth and CPM Central Committee Member and Krishak Sabha leader
Binoy Konar wanted to crush the resistance to the CPM in the
villages and pressured the CPM state leadership to take action.
Several thousand police were brought in to break the resistance.
In addition, reportedly hundreds of CPM activists assisted in
the assault. A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team that
started its investigation of the killings on March 16 has
already arrested ten CPM cadres with weapons, ammunition and
police helmets in their possession. Initial news of the CBI
report released on March 21 also indicates that some of the
bullet wounds of the dead were not caused by standard issue
police .303 round ammunition, but likely by guns used by CPM
activists.




7. (SBU) Comment: In West Bengal the corollary to the line
that "all politics is local" is that local politics is violent.
The political process here is less "Mr. Smith Goes to
Washington" and more "The Sopranos." The clash in Nandigram had
devolved from an effort to acquire land, to the CPM ensuring
that its power was restored in a resistant area. The debate
over the merits of converting rural areas to industry, or proper
compensation, and the questions related to the GOWB's plans for
industry all fell into the background as the local CPM strongmen
simply sought to reassert their power and influence.
JARDINE