WEST BENGAL CHIEF MINISTER COMMENTS ON STATE SECURITY,

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KOLKATA 000184

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PTER PGOV PREL ECON ASEC IN
SUBJECT: WEST BENGAL CHIEF MINISTER COMMENTS ON STATE SECURITY,
ECONOMIC POLICIES AND THE RISE OF BJP - CORRECTED COPY

REF: KOLKATA 00180


1. (SBU) Summary: On June 9, ConGen made his farewell call on
West Bengal Chief Minister (CM) Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. The CM
was very engaged and candid during his discussion, commenting on
his concerns about rising Islamic fundamentalism, his differing
views on policies with his party's national leadership, and the
likely ascendancy of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in coming
state and national elections. Commenting on growing Islamic
fundamentalism, Bhattacharjee emphasized the importance of good
security around the U.S. Consulate's facilities. He added that
fundamentalists are taking advantage of sensitive issues like
land acquisition to gain support. The land-for-industry
disputes have also proved to be a rallying point for Maoists.
Bhattacharjee commented on the GOI's recent petroleum price hike
and said that he had advised Communist Party of India - Marxist
(CPM) General Secretary Prakash Karat against a strike or
"bandh" protest but failed to convince the national party
leader. End Summary.

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Fundamentalist Threat
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2. (U) During ConGen's farewell call on CM Bhattacharjee, the CM
expressed appreciation for ConGen's efforts to expand U.S.
commercial relations with the state, ConGen's work in forming a
new American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) Kolkata chapter and in
establishing the new American School Kolkata (ASK).


3. (SBU) When ConGen expressed appreciation for the GOWB's
support for the Consulate's security, the CM responded by
emphasizing strongly what he characterized as a growing threat
of Islamic radicals in the state. He added that he was a target
of Islamic extremists and that the Consulate and ConGen were
also targets. He encouraged that tight security measures should
be maintained around the U.S. Consulate facilities. He advised
ConGen to brief his successor on the seriousness of the security
issue.


4. (SBU) Bhattacharjee said that Muslim fundamentalists are
taking advantage of contentious issues like the GOWB's efforts
to acquire land from farmers for industry to gain support among
the Muslim community. According to Bhattacharjee, the
fundamentalists are convincing Muslims that land documents are
their only evidence of citizenship in India and if dispossessed,
they will become vulnerable to exploitation. He noted that
there are 507 government-run madrasas but more than 2,000
private madrasas, which serve mostly poor students and the
curriculum is purely religious. As a result, this large
population of poor Muslim youth does not learn employable skills
and their lack of employment opportunity makes them susceptible
to fundamentalist influence. Bhattacharjee specifically
directed his irritation at West Bengal Jamiat Ulema e Hind (JUH)
General Secretary Siddiqullah Choudhury, who he alleged receives
money from international organizations to run madrasas and is
encouraging fundamentalism (REFTEL). Bhattacharjee noted that
ConGen had met with Choudhury a year ago and commented that some
within his party thought that there was a conspiracy by the USG
to foster discord among Muslims but Bhattacharjee did not
believe that was the case. He added that Choudhury also raised
funds from his certification of food items as halal (being
religiously permissible to consume). He said that Muslims
should realize that only the CM's CPM can protect them from the
BJP which may come to power after the next Parliamentary
elections.

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Maoists and the Land Controversy
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5. (SBU) Shifting to the Maoist threat in the state,
Bhattacharjee said that if West Bengal's 18 districts, only
three were partially affected by Maoist violence. A total of
nine police station areas in West Midnapore, Purulia and Bankura
are dominated by the Maoists. However, the GOWB's acquisition
of farmers' land for industry has proved to be a rallying point
for the various radical elements. The CM added farmers are
apprehensive about land, and they are mostly Muslims. They
voted against the Left and the opposition's campaign in the May
panchayat (local, village and district-level) elections proved
successful. In North 24 Parganas district alone, the CPM lost
5% of its Muslim vote. Bhattacharjee conceded that his

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government did not take into account casual labor and share
croppers and did not consider that aside from the landowners,
others would be affected by the takeover of agricultural land.
He said that the GOWB needed to draw up a comprehensive
rehabilitation and compensation policy that would show that
industrialization and land acquisition were beneficial to all
concerned - landowners, share croppers, and other agricultural
dependent laborers. The state government's focus for future
development was now on manufacturing rather than IT and this
necessitates acquisition of more land.

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State Communists Versus National Leaders
--------------


6. (SBU) Bhattacharjee was candid that following the recent GOI
petroleum price increase, he had advised CPM General Secretary
Prakash Karat against calling a general strike or "bandh." The
Chief Minister claimed he had suggested rather that the people
be provided relief with a tax cut from the state government and
that the party could organize protests, but a strike was not
desirable for the state economy. However, he admitted his
failure to convince Karat as well as his party's trade union
leaders. He also said that he could not publicly criticize his
party's bandh-culture and had to maintain silence when the media
questioned him.

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The National Picture
--------------


7. (SBU) Bhattacharjee referred to his meeting with Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh in the last week of May. Singh
reportedly explained "like an economist" why a fuel price hike
was unavoidable, following which the CM raised his concerns
about the consequences of such a hike vis-`-vis the BJP and the
next Parliamentary elections. Bhattacharjee told ConGen that
the Congress's policies are giving the BJP a clear advantage and
expressed his apprehensions that the BJP will likely do very
well in upcoming state and national elections. He blamed the
Congress for this situation as the party was unwilling to accept
the Left's demands for populist policies, such as making the
private oil companies - namely Reliance - pay more rather than
the public to meet shortfalls in the public sector oil
companies.


8. (SBU) Bhattacharjee also said that Singh requested the Left's
reconsideration on the Indo-U.S. civil nuclear deal as the
future of the agreement would become uncertain once new
governments came to power in India and U.S. in the near future.
Bhattacharjee avoided commenting more on the civil nuclear
agreement, implying that it was more of an issue for his party's
national leadership.

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COMMENT
--------------


9. (SBU) The CM was very pleasant and open in his conversation
with ConGen, reflecting the greater pragmatism and willingness
of the senior Communist leadership in the state to engage with
USG representatives. Bhattacharjee's strong views on Muslim
extremists are a concern as they indicate a more serious threat
assessment by the GOWB and the CPM than generally expressed in
public. The CPM has relied to great extent on Muslim votes for
its political dominance in West Bengal. The CM's expression of
fear about the Muslim community's possible radicalization is a
significant change in CPM perspective regarding the loyalty and
political value of the Muslim community. Also evident from the
conversation was that Bhattacharjee did not agree with the CPM
national leadership on its continued use of bandhs and that
Bhattacharjee was generally sympathetic with Prime Minster
Singh's economic policies. The CM's belief that the BJP will
likely come to power at the Center in the next general elections
implied a broadly pessimistic view that the CPM will face a
difficult political future at the national level. However in
the discussion, the CM reflected no awareness of how his CPM
party had facilitated the BJP's possible rise by undermining the
Congress Party and its United Progressive Alliance (UPA)
government.
JARDINE