India and its farmers have sole right over its waters: PM Modi on Indus Water Treaty

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said India and its farmers have the sole right over the country’s share of Indus river waters and termed the Indus Water Treaty “unjust and one-sided”.

It had caused enormous harm to agriculture in India, Modi said in his Independence Day address from the Red Fort. He said the attack in Pahalgam underscored the futility of continuing the agreement.

“India has decided that blood and water cannot flow together,” the prime minister said, accusing the treaty of allowing rivers that rise in India to “irrigate the fields of our enemies, while the soil of my country and the farmers of my country remain thirsty”.

“The waters that belong to India will be used by India, for India’s farmers alone and we would no longer tolerate an arrangement that deprived its farmers,” he said.

Modi said India's farmers had suffered “unimaginable losses” for decades under the agreement.

“India has endured this for decades. We will not endure it any further. In the interest of our farmers, in the interest of the nation, this agreement is unacceptable to us,” he asserted.

Earlier this week, Sharif warned that India would not be allowed to snatch “even one drop” of water belonging to Pakistan amid heightened tensions. “If you threaten to hold our water, keep in mind you cannot snatch even one drop of Pakistan,” he said, adding that if India attempted such an act, “you will again be taught such a lesson that you will be left holding your ears.”

Pakistan has repeatedly warned that any interference to stop water would be treated as an act of war. A day earlier, former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari called the IWT’s suspension “an attack on the Indus Valley Civilisation” and said the nation would not back down if New Delhi forced it into war.

The sharp escalation in rhetoric follows the April 22 terrorist attack in Pahalgam that killed 26 civilians. A day after the attack, India announced a series of punitive measures against Pakistan, including putting the 1960 treaty in “abeyance”.

Pakistan’s Army Chief Asim Munir, addressing the diaspora in Tampa, Florida, reportedly said Islamabad would destroy any dam if India cut off water flow. “We will wait for India to build a dam, and when they do so, we will destroy it… The Indus River is not the Indians’ family property,” he was quoted as saying by Dawn.

India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in retaliation for the Pahalgam attack. Both sides reached an understanding on May 10 to end the conflict after four days of intense cross-border drone and missile strikes.