CALCUTTA: Irate communist jute workers attacked six Soviet diplomats picnicking in West Bengal, and the envoys were saved only when the assailants were confronted with gunfire, officials said ‘on April 24,
Officials reported no injuries in the Sunday incident that they said was the first time diplomats had been attacked in Calcutta, the state capital of West Bengal, 800 miles east of New Delhi.
They said six Soviet trade officials including the consul’s Deputy Trade Commissioner A.V. Danosial and some from a visiting delegation, traveled to Dogachia village for a picnic at the secured site 25 miles from downtown Calcutta.
Moscow’s representatives were accompanied by a technical expert from a local jute mill and a senior banking official, and the group traveled in four diplomatic cars to the location popular for its gardens and fishing.
However, members of a trade union faction of the state’s ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) mistakenly thought the group included a local industrialist who recently closed two jute mills putting many employees out of work, after agitation at the mills by activists.
Officials said as the group was picnicking an unspecified number of the union workers from the mill which processes the fibrous jute plants used in making sacks, stoned the diplomats cars.
Then the assailants brandishing red flags adorned with Soviet he Kling them, compelling the diplomats to retreat inside the house of the village headman, officials said.
They said the irate workers stormed inside the building and again harassed the delegation who according to one official pleaded “we are Russians” we are communists”.
“They sensed that there was no escape from the mob fury and after some more manhandling the Soviets ran for their lives and took shelter in some adjoining houses,” the official said. The crowd went on a rampage but only retreated when the father of the house owner fired some shots into the air.”
He and other officials reported the police arrived soon after and dispersed the protesters before providing an armed escort for the visibly shaken diplomats back to the Soviet consulate,
“It was a trivial matter,” said a Soviet spokesman. “A large trade delegation is in the city and the console is not in full knowledge of their whereabouts.
A Communist Party official also downplayed the incident saying it was “unfortunate and sad” and “the attack was not meant for Soviet officials”.
India’s ruling Congress (I) Party remains close ties with Moscow, but the reform movement of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev has found little support from West Bengal’s Marxists, who mostly remain doctrinaire Leninists.
The eastern state and southern Kerala remain the world’s only elected communist administrations.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 5, 1989
