India’s decision to put the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance is only a natural outcome of Pakistan putting in abeyance the principles, including friendship and goodwill, guiding the agreement, the Ministry of External Affairs has told a parliamentary committee.
The MEA has said changes in the ground situation, including engineering techniques, climate change and melting of glaciers, have made a renegotiation of the treaty’s terms imperative, a line that delegations visiting world capitals will also take in defending India’s decision to put the agreement in abeyance after the horrific Pahalgam terror attack, sources said.
Besides, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri has noted in his briefing that the 1960 treaty in its preamble says that it is concluded in a “spirit of goodwill, and friendship”. All these principles have in effect been held in abeyance by Pakistan, he added.
Misri had recently briefed a parliamentary committee on Indian actions, including Operation Sindoor, following the April 22 terror strike in Pahalgam, and has spoken to all seven multi-party delegations visiting 33 countries and the Europen Union to explain India’s position following the conflict with Pakistan.
The MEA said that Pakistan had been stonewalling India’s requests for a government-to-government negotiation over the treaty due to changes in the ground situation since it was signed.
There is a compelling case for the treaty to be renegotiated to make it fit for the 21st century, as it was based on the engineering techniques of the 1950s and early 1960s, the MEA has said.
Other fundamental changes include climate change, melting of glaciers, the variation in quantities of water available in the rivers and demographics.
These, besides a quest for clean energy, mandate renegotiations for the distribution of rights and obligations under the treaty.
It added, “The treaty in its preamble says that it is concluded in a spirit of goodwill, and friendship. All these principles have in effect been held in abeyance by Pakistan. The unrelenting cross-border terrorism from Pakistan interferes with our ability to exploit the treaty as per its provisions.” The MEA said it is only natural and well within India’s right to hold the treaty in abeyance when the fundamental ground situations have changed completely.
Drawing a red line, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had recently said that blood and water can not flow together. (AGENCIES)
