VZCZCXRO1938
OO RUEHBI RUEHCI
DE RUEHCI #0011/01 0081422
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 081422Z JAN 07
FM AMCONSUL CALCUTTA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 1340
INFO RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI IMMEDIATE 1229
RUEHCG/AMCONSUL CHENNAI PRIORITY 0506
RUEHBI/AMCONSUL MUMBAI PRIORITY 0506
RUEHKA/AMEMBASSY DHAKA 0318
RUEHKT/AMEMBASSY KATHMANDU 0318
RUEHGO/AMEMBASSY RANGOON 0209
RUEHIL/AMEMBASSY ISLAMABAD 0246
RUEIDN/DNI WASHINGTON DC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RHMFISS/CDR USPACCOM HONOLULU HI
RUEHCI/AMCONSUL CALCUTTA 1657

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 CALCUTTA 000011 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
PACOM FOR POL/AD 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM ASEC CASC IN
SUBJECT: SIX PEOPLE KILLED IN VIOLENCE IN RURAL WEST BENGAL 
 
REF: 06 CALCUTTA 00578 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Summary:   In the evening and early morning of January 
6-7, six people were killed in fighting around the West Bengal 
sub-district of Nandigram.  The violence occurred between local 
villagers opposing the state government's plans to develop a 
Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in the area and members of the 
state-ruling Communist Party of India - Marxist (CPM).  Tensions 
had been high since January 3 when locals, with the backing of 
small Leftist parties like the Communist Party of India (CPI) 
and CPI (Maoist-Leninist), attacked police and government 
officials in the belief that the officials were surveying land 
in preparation for future development.  The villagers 
established road blocks and damaged bridges to prevent access to 
the area.  Police and paramilitary forces moved in over the 
following two days but failed to prevent numerous CPM agitators 
from gathering in neighboring villages and in mounting an armed 
attack on Sonachura village Saturday evening, January 6. 
According to reports, fighting with small arms, homemade bombs, 
swords and knifes went on through the night resulting in deaths 
and numerous injuries.  Newspapers printed photographs of dogs 
feeding on charred corpses and described the area as being like 
a "war zone," with limbs and bodies strewn about.  In response, 
opposition parties Trinamul Congress (Trinamul) and the Congress 
Party (Congress) announced general strikes or "bandhs" for 
Monday January 8, which disrupted business activity and some 
transportation.  This violence follows fighting and 
demonstrations in December 2006 over the GOWB's plans to develop 
a TATA car factory in Singur district, another rural area not 
far from Calcutta, and reflects the serious problem facing the 
state government as it tries to implement its industrial policy 
over the objections of some rural communities and political 
opposition.  End Summary. 
 
¶2.  (SBU)  In the evening of Saturday January 6, violence 
exploded in the rural West Bengal sub-district of Nandigram, 
located 150 kilometers southwest of Calcutta.  CPM cadre clashed 
with local villagers supported by small leftist groups such as 
the CPI, Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI), CPI-ML, Muslim 
group Jamat-ul-Ulema-Hind as well as a local village 
organization Krishi Jami Raksha (Save the Farmland Committee). 
CPM activists gathered in villages in Nandigram throughout 
Saturday to mount a response to earlier attacks by the Nandigram 
residents against police, government officials and local CPM 
leaders on Wednesday, January 3.  The villagers had been upset 
about the prospect of their land being acquired by the 
CPM-controlled GOWB as part of a 250-acre SEZ for the Indonesian 
corporation Salim Group.  In addition to attacking visiting 
government officials, the Nandigram villagers set the local CPM 
office on fire, destroyed bridges and blockaded roads.  Police 
and paramilitary forces were deployed on January 3 and were 
patrolling Nandigram over the following days.  CPM Central 
Committee Member Benoy Konar told the media prior to the CPM 
attack on Sonachura village that, "We [CPM] will surround 
Nandigram with our men and give them hell."  Law enforcement was 
noticeably absent when the CPM made its assault on Sonachura 
village over a four hour period with homemade bombs, small arms, 
swords and knives.  Six villagers were killed, many others 
injured or missing.  Media compared Sonachura to a battlefield 
strewn with bodies, dismembered limbs and the injured.  The 
"Hindustan Times" newspaper printed a photograph of dogs feeding 
on a charred corpse.  The police's failure to intervene was 
attributed to not wanting to confront their political masters, 
the CPM party functionaries. 
 
¶3.   (SBU) Opposition Trinamul and Congress parties were quick 
exploit the violence and to call for a general strike, or 
"bandh" in West Bengal.  Trinamul called for a 12-hour bandh and 
Congress a 24-hour bandh on Monday, January 8.  Many offices in 
Calcutta and throughout the state were closed and transportation 
was disrupted.  Trinamul and Congress supporters enforced the 
strike with some violence.  Two people were injured in 
Calcutta's neighbor city of Howrah, when a bomb was thrown at a 
bus.  Four police were in injured in Nandigram, when they were 
stoned by locals and trains were disrupted in the northern town 
of Asansol, when train tracks were damaged.  Police arrested 350 
bandh enforcers and demonstrators in Calcutta.  ConGen discussed 
the recent violence with Calcutta Police Commissioner Prasun 
Mukherjee, who believed that the disruptions and possible 
violence would likely continue for the near future.  Mukherjee 
 
CALCUTTA 00000011  002 OF 002 
 
 
was also concerned that Nandigram could become a communal 
problem as many of the villagers were Muslim and Muslim groups 
like Jamat-ul-Ulema-Hind were using the recent violence to 
create the fear within the local Muslim community that the SEZ 
land acquisition was an anti-Muslim effort and not simply an 
issue of industrial development. 
 
¶4.   (SBU)  The Nandigram incident follows earlier violence and 
opposition agitation in December against GOWB land acquisition 
for a TATA Motors car factory in Singur district (REFTEL). 
Trinamul Leader Mamata Banerjee had conducted a 25-day hunger 
strike to galvanize opposition to the TATA factory.  After 
Banerjee ended her hunger strike on December 28, hopes were high 
among the general public and the business community that the 
strikes and violence which ended 2006 would not mar the start of 
¶2007.  However, the latest round of opposition to the planned 
SEZ in Nandigram and resultant fighting has already cast a pall 
over the new year.  During the bandh, ConGen met visiting HSBC 
Bank Head of Global Resourcing Rob Murth after Murth's meeting 
with Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.  Murth said he told 
the CM Bhattacharjee that the bandhs in West Bengal will force 
HSBC to review its plans for future investment in the state. 
HSBC already has one back office processing operation (BPO) 
employing over 2,000 people and has signed an agreement to 
construct a second office for another 3,000 people. 
 
¶5.  (SBU)  Comment:  This latest outbreak of violence in 
Nandigram and the opposition parties' bandh is undermining the 
GOWB and CM Bhattacharjee's efforts to portray West Bengal as 
having overcome its history of destructive politics.  2007 is 
not offering a new chapter for the state but rather a return to 
an old story of strike and political violence.  However, it 
would be wrong to see this clash as a problem limited to West 
Bengal.  The fundamental cause of the violence is the persistent 
tension over implementing a program of industrial development in 
rural areas where land is seen as the lifeblood of the people. 
This tension is not unique to West Bengal.  Throughout India, 
with its massive population and limited land, government 
officials confront communities reluctant to part with their 
properties and farms.  Corporate and government leaders' plans 
for economic development will go awry if they do not effectively 
communicate with the poor rural masses and respond to their 
fears.  Rather than an isolated incident, Nandigram represents a 
general concern regarding the full implications of India's 
aspirations for economic growth that remains latent in its rural 
and poor communities. 
JARDINE