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DE RUEHCG #0103 0791034
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UNCLAS CHENNAI 000103 
 
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SENSITIVE 
 
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E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KDEM PREL PINR IN
SUBJECT:  KERALA COMMUNISTS SLAM HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY:  The recently released Country Reports on Human 
Rights Practices for 2007 (Human Rights Report) drew sharp rebukes 
from leftists in the South Indian state of Kerala.  The state's 
ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) described the 
report as an "imperialist strategy to sabotage" the communist 
governments in Kerala and West Bengal.  The leftists focused on 
references to deaths in police custody in the state, but also took 
issue with the report's mention of the violence in CPI(M)-controlled 
Nandigram, West-Bengal.  The anguished protest against the Human 
Rights Report's rather straightforward discussion of events in 
Kerala demonstrates that any comment from the United States can be 
perceived as an all-out attack by the state's leftists.  END 
SUMMARY. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Indian media reports after the March 14 release of the 
Human Rights Report focused on references to the violence in 
Nandigram, West Bengal (reftels) and, to a lesser degree, on 
custodial deaths in Kerala.  The emphasis on West Bengal and Kerala 
led to suggestions that U.S. antipathy to the communist parties that 
govern the two states, especially in light of their opposition to 
U.S.-India civil nuclear cooperation, had played a role in the 
drafting of the report.   Kerala-based leftists quickly took to 
spinning the story.  According to media reports, CPI(M) State 
Secretary Pinarayi Vijayan said that the report's objective was to 
 
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isolate Kerala and West Bengal and to tarnish the image of their 
CPI(M)-led governments.  Communist Party of India (CPI) State 
Secretary Veliyam Bhargavan reportedly described the document as an 
 
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attempt to interfere in the internal affairs of the country and 
suggested that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency was at work, 
mentioning the oft-discussed in Kerala question of the Agency's role 
in undermining the state's first elected Communist government in 
¶1957. 
 
¶3. (SBU) The Human Rights Report's reference to custodial deaths in 
Kerala was quite straightforward:  "the Kerala State Human Rights 
Commission (KSHRC) registered 25 cases of custodial deaths from 
January to June, compared with 39 cases in 2005. According to KSHRC, 
46 persons died in state custody throughout the year. The 
commission-led investigation of these deaths was ongoing at year's 
end."  Kerala's Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan disavowed the 
Human Rights Commission's own figures, telling reporters that "the 
references about custodial deaths in Kerala in the report are 
totally untrue as no custodial death had taken place in the state in 
2007."  (NOTE:  We believe that in denying the story Home Minister 
Balakrishnan was conflating the issue of custodial deaths with 
deaths attributable to torture.  We take him to be claiming that 
nobody died in policy custody as a result of torture, not that that 
there were no deaths at all of people in custody.  Post stands by 
the accuracy of the Human Rights Report's information on custodial 
deaths in Kerala, which we received from the state's own Human 
Rights Commission.  END NOTE.) 
 
¶4.  (SBU) COMMENT:  The leftist ire at the Human Rights Reports' 
straightforward discussion of Kerala shows the depth of their 
suspicion -- which rises to paranoia -- about U.S. intentions here. 
In addition to Balakrishnan's disavowing the reports of custodial 
deaths, leftist leaders were quick to throw out the well worn 
accusations of a shadowy U.S. plot to interfere in India's internal 
politics and of CIA operations in Kerala.  Although Kerala's 
communist leaders have been quite willing to talk to us in the 
recent years, we expect they will be reluctant to do so until the 
temperature over the Human Rights Report cools down.  On the 
national scene, furor over the CPI(M)-sponsored violence last year 
in Nandigram had faded but the  CPI(M)'s shrill reaction to the 
Human Rights Report has served only to shine the spotlight once 
again on the party's brutal tactics to protect its turf.  END 
COMMENT. 
 
¶5.  (U) This cable was coordinated with Embassy New Delhi. 
 
HOPPER