VZCZCXRO8497
RR RUEHAST RUEHBI RUEHLH RUEHNEH RUEHPW
DE RUEHCI #0330/01 3391355
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 041355Z DEC 08
FM AMCONSUL KOLKATA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2201
INFO RUCNCLS/ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHINGTON DC
RUEHCI/AMCONSUL KOLKATA 2691

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 KOLKATA 000330 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR SCA/INS (SABA GHORI), DRL/IRF (JOANELLA MORALES) 
NSC FOR ANISH GOEL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KIRF PGOV PHUM PREF SOCI IN
SUBJECT: ORISSA POST VIOLENCE - SECURITY, RECONCILIATION AND 
ELECTIONS 
 
REF: A. NEW DELHI 2789 
     ¶B. KOLKATA 252 
 
KOLKATA 00000330  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: The Orissa state government is currently 
engaged in ensuring security, coordinating relief efforts and 
facilitating reconciliation in Kandhamal district.  The 
government reports 40 deaths and 134 injuries statewide in the 
violence that began on August 23 with the murder of Hindu 
religious leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati.  The police 
arrested more than 1,200 people and have opened almost 1,000 
criminal cases, although the killers of the Hindu religious 
leader have yet to be named.  An estimated 9,500 individuals 
remain in temporary camps, wary of returning to their damaged 
properties and their once-friendly neighbors.  The state has 
improved its cooperation and outreach with non-government 
organizations (NGOs) in delivering aid.  Government officials, 
community members and religious leaders cite the perceived abuse 
of government affirmative action programs and socioeconomic 
differences as explanatory causes of the violence that has 
played out along ethnic and religious lines.  The government's 
response to the Kandhamal communal violence and its underlying 
causes will be an issue in the upcoming state and national 
elections anticipated for Spring 2009. 
 
¶2.  (U) Poloff and PolFSN traveled to Bhubaneswar, Orissa from 
November 20 - 22 and met with government officials, politicians, 
NGOs, religious organizations and journalists to prepare this 
report.  The statistics are drawn from the Orissa government's 
report for the Ministers of Agriculture, Social Justice and 
Tribal Affairs who visited the state from November 17 - 19 to 
assess rehabilitation and reconciliation efforts. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) On August 23 unidentified individuals killed Hindu 
religious leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati in the Kandhamal 
district of Orissa.  The act unleashed a wave of revenge 
killings, assaults and property destruction in the district, 
with a few incidents located in surrounding districts. 
According to widely-accepted government statistics, 40 people 
died and 134 were injured - both Kandh (a tribe) and Pano (a 
caste) and Christian and Hindu, although more than 80 percent of 
the attacks were against Christian entities.  The majority of 
attacks occurred within the first week of violence when local 
police were unable to control the situation and before 
reinforcements from the central government, the Central Reserve 
Police Force (CRPF), had arrived on the fifth day.  Sporadic 
violence continued until mid-October, by which time the state 
government had re-established law and order in the district. 
The Supreme Court has ordered the CRPF to remain in Orissa until 
the end of 2008; however, state government officials suggested 
that they will be asked to remain until the completion of next 
spring's elections. 
 
The State Government's Initial Delayed Response 
 
¶4.  (SBU) According to police and state government officials, 
the state's initial law and order response was hampered by 
ineffective transportation and communications and the delayed 
arrival of the CRPF.  Kandhamal is a remote hilly, forested 
district of approximately 650,000 inhabitants with a very low 
population density - one third of the state average.  At times 
during the violence, villagers cut down trees and established 
temporary road blocks to delay the police's response.  It 
remains unclear why the CRPF took so long to arrive.  According 
to parliamentarian Jay Panda, a member of the ruling Biju Janata 
Dal (BJD) party, the state requested CRPF deployment from the 
Union Home Ministry on the first day of the crisis; however, it 
took more than five days for the force to arrive.  Furthermore, 
several media contacts suggested that the former Director 
General of Police had not been fully engaged on the issue due to 
his pending retirement at the end of the year. 
 
New Personnel - New Direction 
 
¶5. (SBU) Since the religious violence began, the government has 
accepted the early retirement of the Director General of Police, 
transferred the district police superintendent and collector and 
appointed a special civil servant advisor to reside in Kandhamal 
and coordinate reconstruction and address improper land 
acquisition.  Relief organizations and media sources generally 
regard the new officials as "impartial, honest and effective." 
In a November 20 meeting with Poloff, the new Director General 
of Police, Manmohan Praharaj, credited a strategy focusing on 
"mobility and communications" in helping him to re-establish law 
and order in the district.  After assuming charge on September 
30, he ordered a police presence, outfitted with radios and 
motorbikes, every 10 kilometers along the road to ensure that 
police were informed and could respond to any incident. 
 
KOLKATA 00000330  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
 
¶6. (SBU) After halting the violence, Praharaj's focus turned 
towards arresting the perpetrators of violence, facilitating 
residential return and preventing future civil unrest. 
According to him, the police have detained more than 800 
individuals; but it is unclear to what degree they are involved 
with criminal acts.  The state government has yet to name 
Laxmanananda's killers, a key demand of the Hindu religious 
organization Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and its coalition 
partner Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).  Noting the sensitive 
nature of the killers' identity the then Home Secretary refused 
to provide Poloff with any information on the arrested persons, 
including any potential group affiliation whether Maoists, 
Christian or possibly both. 
 
NGOs Work with Government to Deliver Relief 
 
¶7.  (SBU) The state government has allocated funds to compensate 
next of kin and repair damaged houses, businesses and places of 
worship.  However, relief organizations would like to see a more 
robust housing compensation program, to include a cash-for-work 
allocation.  While the state government originally prevented 
relief organizations from working in the district due to 
security concerns, they resumed their work in November. 
Archbishop of Bhubaneswar-Cuttack Raphael Cheenath told Poloff 
that several relief organizations are currently discussing with 
the state government a public-private partnership to supplement 
the government-provided home relief compensation plan. 
 
Residents Reluctant to Return 
 
¶8. (SBU) While the government cites declining camp population 
figures in Kandhamal, currently 9,500 down from a high of 
24,000, as proof that residents are returning, several relief 
and Christian organizations allege former residents have simply 
left the district and/or state.  Politicians hold out promise 
for village "peace committees" that will allow villagers to 
reconcile with one another but some relief workers note that the 
reconciliation process will require time and additional 
resources.  One NGO, Catholic Relief Services, is preparing such 
a project proposal for donor consideration. 
 
Affirmative Action, Class and Identity in Kandhamal 
 
¶9. (SBU) Mainstream interlocutors were quick to identify the 
existence and possible abuse of affirmative action policies as 
an underlying explanation for the violence.  The district's 
population are divided into two ethnic groups: the Kandhas and 
the Panas.  Both the Kandhas, as a scheduled tribe, and the 
Panas, as a scheduled caste, enjoy privileged positions 
according to the Indian constitution.  One's scheduled tribe or 
caste designation may affect one's economic rights, for instance 
only tribals can buy tribal land without special permission. 
Political rights are also affected as a portion of parliamentary 
and assembly seats are reserved for scheduled castes or tribes. 
The Kandhamal parliamentary seat had been reserved for scheduled 
caste, i.e. a Pana, in the majority Kandh district; however, 
according to BJD party and media contacts, it will be changed to 
an open seat for the upcoming election as a result of a 
unrelated national nonpartisan review and redistricting process. 
 
¶10.  (SBU) Under the Indian constitution, when one converts to 
Christianity, they lose their right to claim scheduled caste 
status and are no longer eligible for scheduled caste economic 
and political benefits, as Christianity does not recognize a 
caste system.  While most Kandhas are Hindus who follow their 
own indigenous culture, a majority of Panas are Christians.  As 
missionaries have increased their work in the district, in the 
last forty years the Christian population in Kandhamal has grown 
from five to twenty percent, mostly among the Panas.  To 
complicate the matter further, some Panas who converted to 
Christianity continue to claim to be tribal Kandhas, as they 
speak the language Kui - thereby reaping the political and 
economic benefits from both government affirmative action 
schemes. 
 
¶11. (SBU) Socioeconomic inequities also explain the violence. 
The Panas have traditionally been the interlocutors for the 
Kandhas with the outside world serving as their traders, 
servants and slaves.  The Panas' increased share of economic 
activity is correlated with their educational advances, thanks 
in part to the role of Christian missionary organizations.  The 
Kandhas resent the economic rise and empowerment of this 
traditional servant class and alleged misappropriation of tribal 
lands. 
 
 
KOLKATA 00000330  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
¶12. (SBU) Hindu religious leader Laxmanananda began working with 
the tribal community in Kandhamal district in 1967.  He aroused 
the ire of some of the Pana community as he empowered the 
tribals, who represent a majority of the population, to assert 
their political and economic rights - at the expense of the Pana 
community.  Critics contend that he was personally not 
interested in the plight of the tribals as such, but more 
concerned about traditional Hindutva policies - dampening the 
spread of Christianity in the district and maintaining a Hindu 
majority state.  There is a general perception in the population 
that while Maoists may have assassinated Laxmanananda, some 
Christians may have been involved in the planning as they had 
been previously implicated in several of the nine attempts on 
his life.  Christian leaders privately admitted to Poloff that 
they cannot rule out a Christian/Maoist linkage, as the Maoists 
have made inroads amongst some of the Christian population in 
the inland laying districts.  As the President of the YMCA 
Bhubaneswar noted to Poloff, "some Christian youth have gone off 
to the jungles" and they are not there to scavenge for food. 
 
The BJD - Caught in the Middle 
 
¶13. (SBU) The senior coalition partner in the state government, 
the BJD, has had to delicately balance the needs of various 
local stakeholders for justice, security, rehabilitation and 
reconciliation - against the backdrop of the upcoming state and 
national elections, scheduled together for Spring 2009. 
Elements of the Christian community are upset about the 
government's failure to provide for their security in the 
immediate aftermath of the attacks; however, they are now 
encouraged by the government's recent good-faith rehabilitation 
efforts.  The Hindu religious organization VHP would like to see 
their religious leader's killers brought to justice and the 
alleged abuses of the affirmative action programs curbed.  Even 
the BJP has distanced itself from its coalition partner and 
supported a large VHP rally on November 15 in Bhubaneswar 
calling for the identification of Laxmanananda's murderers and 
endorsing the VHP's call for a general December 25 strike. 
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has publicly spoken out against 
the strike and parliamentarian Panda and the former Home 
Secretary T. K. Mishra privately told Poloff that the state 
government would not allow it to proceed. 
 
Comment 
 
¶14. (SBU) The state government's initial response to the 
communal violence in Kandhamal was insufficient in addressing 
the law and order situation in the district. Prompted by the 
central government's discussion of President's Rule, the 
unfavorable international media attention and the Supreme 
Court's October 22nd ruling, the state government beefed up 
security personnel, announced rehabilitation schemes and worked 
with NGOs to deliver relief.  The state government's limited 
police presence, especially its lack of mobility and 
communications, was quickly overwhelmed by the events.  Its 
dependency on the central government to restore civil order has 
also prompted state officials to consider strengthening state 
resources in other areas, such as the establishment of a 
paramilitary unit of tribals to combat the Maoist threat.  In 
this election year the BJD, while favored to return to 
government, is engaged in a delicate dance.  It wants to 
demonstrate its secular appeal by addressing the needs of the 
displaced victims who are mostly Christian Pana, but is also 
eager to maintain its wide populist appeal in a state that is 95 
percent Hindu.  Its coalition partner, the BJP, will continue to 
politicize the communal violence in Kandhamal to mobilize its 
Hindu base.  Interlocutors were unanimous that Kandhamal would 
remain an issue up until the elections and perhaps longer.  The 
moderate voter turnout (50 percent) for the December 2nd 
Kandhamal municipal elections and lack of associated violence is 
one encouraging sign for reconciliation efforts in the state and 
the district. 
PAYNE