VZCZCXRO3295
OO RUEHBI RUEHCI
DE RUEHCI #0182/01 1711437
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 191437Z JUN 08
FM AMCONSUL KOLKATA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 2036
INFO RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI IMMEDIATE 1914
RUEHCG/AMCONSUL CHENNAI PRIORITY 0884
RUEHBI/AMCONSUL MUMBAI PRIORITY 0889
RUEHKA/AMEMBASSY DHAKA 0597
RUEHKT/AMEMBASSY KATHMANDU 0580
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEIDN/DNI WASHINGTON DC
RHHMUNA/USPACOM HONOLULU HI
RUEHCI/AMCONSUL KOLKATA 2489

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KOLKATA 000182 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PTER ECON ASEC IN
SUBJECT: WEST BENGAL CHIEF MINISTER COMMENTS ON STATE SECURITY, 
ECONOMIC POLICIES AND THE RISE OF BJP 
 
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. 
 
--------------------- 
Fundamentalist Threat 
--------------------- 
 
¶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. 
 
-------------------------------- 
Maoists and the Land Controversy 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶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 alone, the CPM lost 5% of its 
Muslim vote.  Bhattacharjee conceded that his government did not 
take into account casual labor and share croppers and did not 
 
KOLKATA 00000182  002 OF 002 
 
 
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. 
 
----------------------------------------- 
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. 
 
-------------------- 
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 Chief Minister 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 natioanl 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. 
 
------- 
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.  Expression's of fear 
about the Muslim community's possible radicalization by the CM 
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 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