Union home minister Amit Shah has categorically ruled out restoring the Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan, asserting that India will instead divert the river water for its internal use.
Shah said, “No, it will never be restored,” when asked about the status of the six-decade-old agreement in an interview with The Times of India.
The Bharatiya Janata Party veteran added, “We will take water that was flowing to Pakistan to Rajasthan by constructing a canal. Pakistan will be starved of water that it has been getting unjustifiably.”
The Indus Waters Treaty, signed in 1960, regulates water sharing between India and Pakistan from the Indus River system. However, India put the treaty into “abeyance” following the April 22 terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, which left 26 civilians dead. The government linked the suspension of the pact to Islamabad’s continued support for cross-border terrorism.
Pakistan has denied involvement in the Pahalgam attack. Despite a ceasefire agreement between the two nuclear-armed neighbours following their worst border clashes in decades, the treaty remains suspended.
Pakistan’s multiple appeals to review suspension order
Since April, Islamabad has repeatedly urged India to reconsider its decision. According to officials familiar with the matter, Pakistan’s water resources secretary, Syed Ali Murtaza, has written at least four letters to India’s Jal Shakti Ministry-three of them after the conclusion of Operation Sindoor, a military operation following the Pahalgam killings-asking for a review of the suspension.
The Pakistani government claims that India’s action violates the treaty and that “no unilateral” suspension is permissible under the pact’s terms.
However, India is firm in its stance that “talks and terror can not go together” and has denied engaging in dialogues until Pakistan stops funding terror groups inside its territory.
India’s formal notification of the suspension was communicated to Pakistan on April 24. In the letter, India’s water resources secretary, Debashree Mukherjee, said, “The obligation to honour a treaty in good faith is fundamental to a treaty. However, what we have seen instead is sustained cross-border terrorism by Pakistan targeting the Indian Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.”
The Indus Waters Treaty has long been a rare example of sustained cooperation between India and Pakistan.