Modi to get briefing on Indus treaty

KV Prasad

 Tribune News Service 

New Delhi, September 25  

Amid the stirring of cauldron over sharing of river waters, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will receive a briefing on the contours of the seven-decade-old Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan and related facets.

After the Uri attack, a vociferous section is suggesting India abrogate the 1960 agreement. The argument being advanced is that turning off the river waters which irrigate Pakistan will force the country to turn off the tap on terrorists. This section also suggests that when Pakistan does not adhere to both the Shimla and Lahore declarations with India, why should New Delhi be obligated to follow an international agreement with Pakistan.

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A source privy to the development said the Prime Minister will get a detailed briefing on the treaty from top officials. The pact is an international commitment made between two sovereign countries through negotiations conducted by the World Bank. The treaty is cited among the best water-sharing agreements that withstood three wars and the roller-coaster relationship between the two neighbours.

Earlier, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said for any such treaty to work, mutual trust and cooperation are  important and it cannot be a one-sided affair. 

Arguments running counter to stopping water to Pakistan state that the pact shows India as a responsible upper riparian state. Any attempt to alter the arrangement will have to factor that India is a lower-riparian state to Himalayan rivers like Brahmaputra where China is the upper riparian state.

China is said to be building dams across the river that flows into Northeast India and could be held as a counter leverage affecting India. 

In addition, it would once again bring to focus water as the bone of contention between the India and Pakistan that dogged early phase of relations.  The pact  was signed on September 19, 1960 between PM Jawaharlal Nehru, President Ayub Khan  and World Bank’s representative W A B Illif at Karachi outlining the sharing of the Indus system of rivers comprising three Eastern Rivers (Ravi, Beas and Sutlej and their tributaries) and three Western Rivers (Indus, Jhelum and Chenab and their tributaries).