For long, India had raised Indus treaty flaws

India placed the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) in abeyance earlier this week, as part of a raft of diplomatic measures targeting Pakistan over the terrorist attack in Pahalgam that killed 26 people.

- Vrinda Tulsian

NEW DELHI:

But discussions recorded in the parliamentary standing committees on external affairs and water resources over the past nine years show that Indian officials and the executive repeatedly expressed frustration with Pakistan's approach to the treaty, but also said they "cannot exit" the 1960 pact.

In January 2017, in his testimony before the parliamentary committee for external affairs, then foreign secretary (now Union minister) S Jaishankar questioned the continued acceptance of the treaty simply because of its longevity.

"The key issue is the workability of the treaty. It is very easy to say that the treaty has stood the test of time or that we should be a responsible country and we should be careful about the statements we should make.

I think we should also be objective about how this treaty is working and how the Pakistanis have handled it and whether we have the courage to deal with that reality," Jaishankar said.

He further said, "If we decide that because something has lasted 70 years and it goes against us and we put up with it, that may be your thinking, it is not ours. The point I wish to make here is that the Pakistanis have used legal harassment techniques, they have taken minor issues and taken it to Court Of Arbitration with the sole purpose of tying up the treaty. They have not let the commission function. I think a very serious look at the treaty and its working is called for."