Water aggression

India's unilateral act of putting the Indus Water Treaty (IWT) in abeyance is unlawful and devoid of rationality. Pakistan has rightly aired its concerns at every forum, soliciting the world community's endorsement to stand up against this policy of 'water aggression', as it is tantamount to the weaponisation of shared natural resources.

Pakistan's permanent representative at the UN once again categorically denounced New Delhi's suspension of the treaty as a tool of political brinkmanship in bilateral relations, and that too in contravention of international law. The envoy was on the spot as he said 'such steps go on to weaken the confidence in international statutes and set a precedent for resource-based coercion by upper riparian states'.

World Bank, as an arbitrator in the IWT, has already denounced India for what is calls its "illegal and untenable" act. India primarily was playing to the gallery as it revoked the treaty after its failure to implicate Pakistan in the Pahalgam tragedy. The fact that the IWT had survived six decades and been an instrument of cooperation was an asset in bilateralism, and India's context of disregarding it exposes its hegemonic designs as well as its utter disregard to the sentiments of the global community.

India has long been hoodwinking ground realities in terms of hydro-politics by building irrationally designed dams with the explicit intention of obstructing downstream water flow into Pakistan. Likewise, it stands in violation of the spirit of nature's unanimity, wherein lower riparian states have the right to the unhampered flow of water. Thus, India, by virtue of the argument is on a losing streak, and all it can do to save its image is to rescind the decision and abide by IWT in full.

The treaty is a model of cooperation, ensuring equitable and predictable sharing of the Indus basin's waters, and should remain in vogue sans realpolitik. As a mark of regional harmony, India must encourage transparency through the sharing of real-time data on water flow and work on climate change projections.