JAMMU: The Congress was too generous to Pakistan and while signing the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) in 1960 gave too much to it. This created a situation whereby India, particularly Jammu & Kashmir, suffered all these years. To change this treaty, the government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given a notice to Pakistan for its review, BJP spokesperson Arun Gupta said here on Friday.
The notice for review of the Treaty was served on Pakistan on August 30 and the Modi government has said that maintaining it in its present form ``is not feasible as it is one sided’’, Mr Gupta said. Various provisions of the Treaty now need reassessment for changing them so that they reflect the ground realities of the present era, he added.
Mr Gupta recalled that the Modi government had given first notice for IWT’s review on January 25 last year. That notice had been issued under Article XII (3) of the treaty which is called Final Provisions and says: (3) The provisions of this Treaty may from time to time be modified by a duly ratified treaty concluded for that purpose between the two Governments. As such, it is very clear that the amending provisions for the Treaty exist within and this is for the first time after over six decades that India has taken recourse to invoking this section, he pointed out.
When the Congress signed this Treaty, it said that being too generous with Pakistan will help win its goodwill. At that time, late Atal Behari Vajpayee had warned then Prime Minister Nehru that it could prove to be detrimental to India’s interests in future. All of Mr Vajpaee’s predictions and forewarnings came true in later years and we in J&K continue to suffer the consequences, Mr Gupta said.
Contrary to Nehru’s assessments, Pakistan tried to grab Jammu & Kashmir in 1965 by deceit by infiltrating its soldiers into the Indian territory under Operation Gibraltar. In Pakistani actions, we lost territory of Chhamb and even Akhnoor was threatened by the Pakistani forces.
It was the out of box thinking of Western Command chief Lt Gen Harbaksh Singh who saved us blushes when he launched a counter-attack for capturing Lahore. The Indian forces even threatened Sialkot and this stopped the Pakistani forces. What halted the movement of Indian tanks towards Lahore? It was the water that Pakistan got from our rivers that it used to fill the ditch cum bunds on the way to Lahore, Mr Gupta said.
Under the Indus Waters Treaty, the three Eastern Rivers of Sutlej, Beas and Ravi were allotted to India and Pakistan got the Western Rivers of Chenab, Jhelum and the Indus. India also got rights to produce electricity from Western Rivers subject to certain conditions. However, what has happened it that Pakistan has objected to every single hydropower project we want to build on the Western Rivers, mainly Chenab. This has cost us very heavily in terms of revenue lost as also hydropower which could have brought light into our houses and ran our industries, Mr Gupta pointed out.
We had to suffer these losses because the Congress allowed such provisions in the Treaty which helped Pakistan. It was only because of Nehru’s personal interventions that such conditions were allowed to be incorporated into the Treaty, Mr Gupta said. The Indian negotiators did not want such provisions in the hands of Pakistan which gave it power to create hurdles in our way of producing clean energy, he pointed out.
Pakistan created impediments in the way of 850 MW Ratle project in Kishtwar and this led to its abandonment by the private company which had initially undertaken to construct it. This project was originally envisaged to start producing electricity by 2018. Imagine the losses suffered by us due to the perfidy of Pakistan which has stalled Ratle, Mr Gupta said.
The Modi government is clear on its agenda of putting Pakistan in its place firmly and as such the treaty will be modified, he stressed. Despite Pakistan’s attempts to wriggle out, it will not be possible for it to do so due to firm dealings of the present BJP regime, he added.
