New Delhi, Aug 18 In a pointed political attack, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) National President and Union Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda has reignited debate over the historic Indus Water Treaty of 1960, branding it one of the “biggest blunders” of India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.
On his X handle, the BJP senior leader Nadda accused Nehru of compromising India’s water security and national interest by unilaterally ceding 80 per cent of the Indus basin waters to Pakistan, leaving India with just 20 per cent.
“The nation must know,” Nadda wrote, “that when Pandit Nehru signed the Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan, he did so without consulting Parliament. It was placed before the House only two months later, and that too for a token discussion of just two hours.”
He described the move as a “national betrayal,” asserting that Nehru’s decision was driven by personal idealism rather than pragmatic statecraft.
The Indus Waters Treaty, signed on September 19, 1960, in Karachi, was brokered by the World Bank and divided the six rivers of the Indus basin between India and Pakistan.
India retained control over the eastern rivers—Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej—while Pakistan was granted rights over the western rivers—Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab.
Critics have long argued that the treaty disproportionately favoured Pakistan, especially given India’s growing water needs and agricultural dependence.
The BJP president Nadda’s remarks come in the wake of media reports that unearthed parliamentary archives showing widespread opposition to the treaty—even within Nehru’s own party.
Congress MP Asoka Mehta reportedly likened the agreement to a “second partition,” while AC Guha condemned the payment of Rs 83 crore in sterling to Pakistan during a foreign exchange crisis as “the height of folly.”
A young Atal Bihari Vajpayee, then MP from Balrampur, had also fiercely opposed the treaty, warning that appeasing Pakistan’s demands would not foster genuine friendship.
“True friendship cannot be built on injustice,” Vajpayee had argued. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also criticised the treaty in recent speeches, calling it “one-sided” and revealing that certain clauses even restricted India from de-silting its own dams without Pakistan’s consent—a condition he described as “shocking” and detrimental to farmers.
The minister concluded his post by asserting that Prime Minister Modi’s decision to put the treaty in abeyance was a corrective measure to “yet another grave historical wrong committed by Congress.”
As the BJP intensifies its critique of Nehru-era decisions, the Indus Water Treaty has once again become a flashpoint in India’s political discourse—raising questions not just about historical accountability, but also about the future of water diplomacy in South Asia.
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