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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 CALCUTTA 000578 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
PACOM FOR POL/AD 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON EAGR PGOV PHUM IN
SUBJECT: WEST BENGAL:   MAMATA STARTS EATING AGAIN, BUT POT STILL 
SIMMERING ON AGRICULTURAL LAND FOR INDUSTRY 
 
¶1.  (SBU)  Summary:   At midnight on December 28, Trinamul 
Congress leader Mamata Banerjee ended her 25-day fast to protest 
construction of a Tata car factory in the rural West Bengal 
district of Singur.  Banerjee's health had been declining and 
two days earlier she had been put on oxygen.  This ends, at 
least for now, a month long protest by Banjeree, her party and 
others opposing the Government of West Bengal's (GOWB) 
acquisition of farm land for the car factory.  Civil society 
leader Medha Patkar, ultra-Left activists and the BJP had also 
rallied against the state government's support of Tata. 
However, Chief Minister (CM) Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee remained 
firm throughout that the Tata project would proceed in Singur as 
planned.  The clash between CM Bhattacharjee and Banerjee 
reflected the growing tension in West Bengal and throughout 
India between retaining the traditional Gandhian "swadeshi" 
ideals of agricultural self-sufficiency and the need to develop 
industry and a modern economy.  End Summary 
 
¶2.  (SBU) The evening of December 28 Trinamul Congress leader 
Mamata Banerjee, responding to requests from PM Singh, President 
Kalam, and former PM Vajpayee, ended her hunger strike against 
Tata's acquisition of land for a car factory in Singur, West 
Bengal.  Banerjee, who was rushed to a nursing home to 
convalesce, indicated that she had been assured by India's top 
leaders that, "Singur's farmers would get justice."  GOWB 
leaders appeared relieved that the fast was over.  West Bengal 
CM Bhattacharjee had written four separate letters to Banerjee, 
offering to discuss all of Banerjee's concerns once she stopped 
fasting.  Banerjee began fasting on Dec 3 in an attempt to force 
the GOWB to return land to Singur's farmers, many of whom 
Banerjee said had been unwilling to sell their land or "forcibly 
uprooted" from their land.  (Note: The GOWB had acquired 997.11 
acres of land for a small-car manufacturing facility to be 
constructed Tata Motors in Singur, which is 40 kilometers from 
Calcutta.  The Tata company plans to set up the factory to 
manufacture their proposed "People's Car," selling for just 
around 100,000 Rupees (USD $2,200).  End Note.) 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Banerjee's decision to end her hunger strike caps a 
difficult month for the reform-minded Bhattacharjee, as he 
attempts to push West Bengal toward industrialization.  A series 
of strikes, four in all, disrupted life in Calcutta and West 
Bengal throughout December.  The Singur issue was the cause for 
three of the strikes.  First came a 12-hour general strike on 
December 1 over the Singur issue, which was followed up by a 
24-hour statewide strike on December 5 by the Socialist Unity 
Center of India (SUCI), who were protesting a police crackdown 
on its supporters protesting against the land acquisition.  On 
December 14 came the `countrywide' industrial strike called by 
the Left affiliated Center for Indian Trade Unions (CITU). 
However, the strike was less countrywide and more focused in 
Leftist bastions of West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura, and became 
a general strike in those areas.  Closing out the month was the 
Trinamul Congress' call for a 48-hour general strike on December 
21-22 - which was called off at the last minute -- to protest 
the December 18 death of a teenage girl within Singur's enclosed 
area. 
 
¶4.  (SBU)  Compounding the GOWB's troubles over Singur was the 
involvement of civil society activist Medha Patkar and Booker 
Prize winner Arundhati Roy, who joined the cause of Singur's 
farmers.  The state government prevented Patkar from reaching 
Singur to speak with the farmers, so Patkar went ahead to 
organize farmers in areas in West Bengal where the GOWB was 
proposing to set up Special Economic Zones.  Smaller ultra-Left 
political parties like the CPI-Marxist Leninist (CPI-ML) 
Liberation and the CPI-ML- Kanu Sanyal joined in the fray 
against the CPM as did the Maoists.  On December 2, scores of 
villagers led by the Maoists fought pitched battles with the 
police at Singur.  Police used teargas shells and baton-charges 
to break up the demonstration, and nearly 50 people were 
injured, including some women.  On December 4, ultra-Left 
activists attacked a Tata showroom to protest the new Tata 
project.  They left behind posters calling on the company to 
abandon its project; demanding, "Leave Bengal and don't uproot 
our farmers."  Prohibitory orders preventing the congregation of 
more than 5 persons were imposed in Singur.  The chambers of 
commerce are concerned that the controversy and its attendant 
political action on the street will project a negative image of 
West Bengal as an investment destination. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Comment:   Singur was a test of will for GOWB and even 
more so for the Chief Minister Bhattacharjee and his vision of 
 
CALCUTTA 00000578  002 OF 002 
 
 
creating greater industry in West Bengal.  While the GOWB is 
breathing a sigh of relief that the media-circus around 
Banerjee's hunger strike has died down, the sensitive issue of 
how to encourage industrialization over the historically 
entrenched agricultural sector will remain.  The involvement of 
nationally-known figures from civil society lent credibility, 
and more importantly, an alternative, pro-farmer, 
anti-corporate, anti-globalization voice to the controversy. 
West Bengal's experience is one that will likely be repeated 
elsewhere as the India faces the daunting task of modernizing 
its economy by shifting the many agriculture-dependent workers 
(approximately 60 percent of Indians are dependent on 
agriculture) from the highly inefficient agricultural sector, 
which contributes only approximately 24 percent of the GDP, into 
other areas of employment.  The old Gandhian ideal of 
village-level self-sufficiency in agriculture, "swadeshi," still 
remains a strong emotive force in discussions over the future of 
industry and agriculture.  The fact that this battle is being 
waged in a Communist-run state is ironic as the Left has been 
actively blocking efforts by the GOI to implement necessary 
reforms in the agricultural sector.  However, if the CM 
Bhattacharjee and the CPM-governed GOWB can push the interests 
of a major corporation like Tata over the objection of its 
traditional rural constituency, an important precedent may have 
been established, allowing the GOI to implement policies to 
encourage more industry and commercial development in India. 
JARDINE