The Pahalgam massacre of innocent Hindu tourists on Tuesday (April 22) was first and foremost a communal plan. The Islamist terrorists who struck at Baisaran meadow adjacent to Pahalgam town carried target killings of Hindus to leave a clear, demonstrative message. Their message and attempt was to trigger communal tensions way beyond Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir. All Bharatiyas, be they from Telangana, or Uttar Pradesh, or Arunachal Pradesh, or Rajasthan, were fair game for Islamists who work as terror proxies for our neighbour Pakistan. The dual identity of being a Hindu and a Bharatiya proved deadly for an innocent man from Kanpur as also many others hailing from other places.
INGS Gone Too Far
New the Indian government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decided that things have been pushed too far by Pakistan. That retaliation, swift and punitive, was in order and within 24 hours of the Pahalgam attack, the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) under the chairmanship of Modi himself, took wide ranging decisions.The first step that the Modi government has decided on is to keep in abeyance the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) of September 19, 1960. This is a real knock-out punch that Modi has delivered to adversary. Incidentally, it has been Modi’s consistent policy to use IWT as a cornerstone of his government’s diplomatic policy for mounting pressure on Pakistan. It needs to be mentioned here that it is for the fifth time during his three tenures that Modi has used IWT to send a message to Pakistan. During his first tenure as PM, from 2014 to 2019, Modi referred to the IWT, indirectly and then directly, twice. During his second tenure, from 2019 to 2024, Modi referred to the IWT, directly, once on January 25, 2023. In his current third tenure, the Modi Government used IWT in August 2024 and now for the second time in April 2025.
On April 23, 2025, Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) decided that IWT will remain in abeyance. This was the first and foremost decision taken in the wake of the Pahalgam attack on Hindu tourists in which over two dozen people died. This was the fifth and most recent time that the Modi Government has taken substantial action on IWT.
On earlier occasions too, Modi has talked of IWT decisively. It has been an escalatory ladder, with each new step a notch above the previous one. Last time, it was the fourth time that the Modi Government talked of IWT on August 30, 2024. On this day, the present Government had sent a notice to Pakistan for modification of IWT under Article XII (3).
Before that, the Modi Government had made its intentions clear about the future of IWT when it gave its first notice for modification on January 25, 2023. That was the third time during Modi’s tenure that IWT had come into play. Just after the Pulwama attack of February 14, 2019, a working group on IWT hurriedly made its recommendations on February 22. The Modi Government’s plans to undertake three projects on Ravi river for fuller utilisation of Bharat’s share of water under IWT were announced. However, only one of the three projects has been completed with nothing done till date on project No. 2 and project No. 3.
After the Uri attack, it was perhaps the first time that PM Narendra Modi toyed with the idea of weaponising water. A statement attributed to him then was: Blood and water can’t flow together.
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