Editor JK News Today
Special commentary
All the myths and politically motivated theories that India cannot keep its word of stopping flow of the rivers flowing from Jammu and Kashmir to Pakistan because of some huge logistic and geographical challenges and strategic costs at the international level have been blown up with Union Home Minister Amit Shah taking a review meeting to assess progress made in this regard on Tuesday .
This was a resounding message to all the skeptics who thought that India was thinking unthinkable – stopping the water flows and storing them for its own use. This skepticism is widespread in Pakistan and some other countries, but there are many doubters within the country too. They count odds rather than the will of the Modi government that has made several impossible things possible.
The three rivers flowing from Jammu and Kashmir to Pakistan – Chenab, Jhelum and Indus – have helped Pakistan to survive for decades now. The 1960 World Bank brokered the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) accorded Pakistan rights over the waters of these three rivers. These rivers’ waters proved a boon to the agrarian economy of Pakistan and also catered to its drinking water needs as also helped it to construct hydro-power projects.
Almost 80 per cent of the waters of these three rivers flow into Pakistan, while India can use the rest of the 20 per cent for irrigation and dam for power projects. This, in itself I an unfair distribution of waters, and at the same time it did convey a very disturbing scenario about the status of Jammu and Kashmir that was agreed to in 1960 – Pakistan could raise Kashmir issue under the garb its claim on the waters and psychologically reducing the Indian share to just 20 percent .
India had announced the suspension of the Treaty on April 23, 2025, a day after Pakistan sponsored terror attack left 26 people, 25 f them tourists, dead and many others wounded in the serene valley of Pahalgam – April 22, 2025). Pakistan was told that this measure will continue until or unless it stops cross-border terrorism. This was a reinforcement of the point that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made in 2016 that he will not allow the Indian waters to flow into Pakistan at the cost of the Indian needs.
But after Pahalgam, it had become a strategic necessity as Pakistan could not be rewarded with the unrestricted flow of waters while Pakistan continued to kill and maim Indian citizens. Prime Minister declared in no uncertain terms, “blood and water cannot flow together. The bar was further raised with the mantra, “not a drop of water will flow into Pakistan.’
Home Minister Amit shah on Tuesday held a meeting in which the whole gamut of things were discussed and reviewed as to how much progress has been made to retain the Indian waters for the Indians. This clearly underlined the fact that the Modi government’s word on the IWT waters I was not a rhetoric, it was an unveiling of plan to take away the control of waters come what may.
In his meeting with his ministerial colleagues Jal Shakti Minister C R Patil, Power Minister M L Khattar and other senior officers, Home Minister Amit Shah asked for the details on the departmental project reports, plans to divert waters from Jammu and Kashmir to other states, involving a huge canal system, rushing through tunnels where mountains come in the way.
Under the Indian scheme of things, there are three – short term, mid-term and long-term- plans on which the government is working. Though it has not been elaborated, yet it could be to divert the waters of the tributaries of the rivers in rural side, tame them for irrigation and construction of mini-hydro-power projects, to start of the construction of canal systems carrying waters to the states like Rajasthan.
This shows that the work is in progress, and that the GoI was not sleeping over the matter. It also vindicates its stand that it can change the course of the rivers notwithstanding the theories and data advanced by Pakistan think tanks , leaders and threats that Pakistan could nuke Indian dams on the rivers in J&K
Home Minister’s review meeting has clearly established the fact that India will not only use the waters but also take control of the waters in full. A clear message to Pakistan and the international community: injustice of decades is being undone. This work is in progress.
