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| IWT divides NC and Congress | | Kashmir of confusion | |
Early Times Report
JAMMU, Sept 25: The possibility of New Delhi reviewing the 56 year old Indus Water Treaty under which Pakistan gets most of the Indus waters had divided the Kashmiri political parties and leaders. The main opposition NC and its working president Omar Abdullah has virtually opposed the Indus Water Treaty and described it as an abomination and former JKPCC president and Union Water Resources Minister Saif-ud-Din Soz has opposed those who demand its abrogation.
"It (IWT) was an abomination and should never have gone through. J-K has suffered long on its account but this government isn't going to scrap it," Omar tweeted on Friday. Omar Abdullah's assertion came amid calls in India that government should scrap the water distribution pact to mount pressure on Pakistan in the aftermath of the audacious Uri militant attack earlier this week.
India is losing more than Rs 18000 crore annually because of this Indus Water Treaty, which was brokered by the World Bank in 1960. Under this Treaty, Pakistan gets watersfrom the Indus, Jhelum and Chenab Waters and India from Ravi, Bias and Satluj rivers.
Saif-ud-Din Soz on Saturday contradicted Omar Abdullah without actually naming him and dismissed him and others of his ilk in the rest of the country hawk. "The hawks in India and Pakistan have raised the war-mongering pitch and rhetoric, which doesn't represent opinion of the masses in both countries, in spite of the recent provocation," Soz said, and, added that "it is a time-tested water distribution treaty brokered by the World Bank and signed by India and Pakistan on 19th September, 1960".
"Unfortunately, for the hawks in the sub-continent, India and Pakistan have not engaged in water wars since the ratification of the treaty," he further said, and added that "Hawks must also know that disagreement and disputes from both the sides have been there, but, the same have always been settled via legal procedures, provided for within the frame work of the Treaty".
The point is that while Omar Abdullah took a line that could offend Pakistan as the Pakistan's very existence depends on the Indus waters, Soz, on the other hand, took a line that Pakistan advocates. On Friday, Pakistan said that any attempt on the part of New Delhi to scrap the Indus Water Treaty would lead to a full-scale war between the two countries. In fact, Pakistan has been seeking to establish its stranglehold over the Indus waters since decades and its former President General Pervez Musharraf had once said that the next war between India and Pakistan would be on water.
In any case, the contradictory stands taken by Omar and Soz only suggest that the Kashmiri leadership is confused and has no one stand on what many Indians call the "Treaty of Sorrow". |
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