PDP strongly objects to fiddling with Indus treaty

NEW DELHI: The coalition partner of BJP in J&K, the People’s Democratic party, has strongly disproved of India abrogating or tampering with the Indus Waters Treaty. Senior PDP leader and a staunch supporter of the Mehbooba Mufti-led coalition arrangement with BJP, Muzaffar Hussain Baig, has said that any violation of the treaty would hurt India as much it would Pakistan and the Centre’s plan to build new dams to limit the flow of water to Pakistan can risk "submerging the Kashmir Valley and turning it into a lake."
"All these talk of abrogating or violating the Indus water treaty, I hope, is just a hot balloon and reflects the rightful anger in India following the Uri attack. The treaty is equal for India and Pakistan as three flow into India and the other three into Pakistan. If the treaty is abrogated, it will hit India as much it will Pakistan," Baig said to ET.

He is also sceptical about the Centre’s move to construct more dams to limit the flow of water into Pakistan. "While abrogation of the treaty is fraught with many difficulties, the talk of constructing more dams too is not a feasible idea. For, it would require really massive dams and even if they are constructed somehow, there indeed is the risk of the Kashmir Valley submerging and turning into a lake," he said.

Baig said that since the Indus project was commissioned by the World Bank, "for India, along with its entitlement, there is also responsibility to fulfil the commitment, failing which it will affect India’s international image."

Former external affairs minister Natwar Singh and ex-UN diplomat Shashi Tharoor too strongly opposed any adventure on Indus Waters Treaty and cautioned the Modi government that any move against the treaty could badly hit India’s standing internationally.

When contacted, Natwar Singh — who has also served as India’s high commissioner to Pakistan — too opposed politicking over the water treaty. "Abrogation, or violation of the Indus water treaty will leave such a deep sense of betrayal and distrust in both India and Pakistan that any long-term normalisation of ties between the two neighbours will become impossible thereafter.

Given the Indus water treaty survived even the Bangladesh war and even 26/11, India will not be able to convince global nations about violation of the treaty now by merely citing the Uri attack," Singh said Taking to ET, Tharoor, a former MoS for external affairs, said: "Blood and water, indeed, flowed together even during the 1965 and 1971 India-Pakistan wars…Abrogation of the Indus Waters Treaty will deliver a rude jolt to India’s standing and credibility internationally.

The treaty is not purely a bilateral affair as it was also brokered by the World Bank, which is abound to strongly react if India unilaterally abrogates the treaty. It will also affect India’s reputation as a model state in our respect for international law and our adherence to morality in foreign policy. India’s image taking a huge hit internationally could even affect out effort to get a UN Security Council berth."

Tharoor further said that any abrogation of the treaty "would set a precedent and we would be loath to see China follow on the Brahmaputra, where it is we who are downstream."