VZCZCXRO1262
PP RUEHBI RUEHCI
DE RUEHCI #0095/01 0801312
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 211312Z MAR 07
FM AMCONSUL KOLKATA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1468
INFO RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI PRIORITY 1379
RUEHCG/AMCONSUL CHENNAI 0605
RUEHBI/AMCONSUL MUMBAI 0599
RUEHKA/AMEMBASSY DHAKA 0381
RUEHKT/AMEMBASSY KATHMANDU 0384
RUEHGO/AMEMBASSY RANGOON 0245
RUEHIL/AMEMBASSY ISLAMABAD 0308
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC
RHMFIUU/CDR USPACOM HONOLULU HI
RUEHCI/AMCONSUL KOLKATA 1811
RUEIDN/DNI WASHINGTON DC

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 
 
KOLKATA 00000095  002 OF 002 
 
 
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