New Delhi, Jul 29 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said his government took a strong decision and put the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance, thus rectifying a “big blunder” committed by the country’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.
Participating in a 19-hour debate in the Lok Sabha on Operation Sindoor, Modi described the signing of the Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan in 1960 by Nehru’s government as a “big betrayal” of India’s dignity.
“It has been an old habit of the Congress to mortgage India’s interests. The biggest example of this is the Indus Waters Treaty. Who signed this treaty? Nehru did it and granted rights to 80 per cent of the waters of the rivers originating in India and flowing to Pakistan,” Modi said, amid protests from the Congress members.
The prime minister said in a historic move, India has put the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance in the best interests of its citizens and farmers.
“India has firmly conveyed its stance that blood and water cannot flow together,” he said.
“The previous Congress-led governments neglected the Indus Waters Treaty and failed to address the mistakes made during Nehruji’s era. However, today, India has taken decisive action to rectify those errors,” Modi said.
He said India gets its identity from the Indus river, but Nehru and the Congress allowed the World Bank to decide on the sharing of the waters of the Indus and the Jhelum.
“Nehru signed this treaty that granted rights to 80 per cent water to Pakistan and 20 per cent to a big country like India. What kind of diplomacy is this?” Modi asked.
He said had the treaty not been signed, several projects could have been built on the west-flowing rivers to solve the problems of farmers in states, such as Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi.
“India could have generated more electricity and solved its problem of drinking water shortages,” Modi said, contending that the treaty had led to inter-state water disputes in the country.
The prime minister slammed Nehru for giving crores of rupees to Pakistan to build canals on the Indus and other rivers, and giving up India’s rights to de-silting the dams built on its territory on these rivers.
Modi said Nehru had admitted his mistake later and said he believed that the Indus Waters Treaty would lead to the solution of other problems with Pakistan.
“But he (Nehru) realised that the problems remained as they were,” Modi said.
As a response to the Pahalgam terror attack, India announced keeping the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance on April 23. PTI SKU RC
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