Accusing former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of compromising India’s water security and national interest, BJP National President and Union Minister JP Nadda on Monday said signing the Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan in 1960 was one of the “biggest blunders” committed by him.
Nadda said Nehru, by unilaterally ceding 80 per cent of Indus basin waters to Pakistan leaving India with just 20 per cent, compromised the country’s interests. “The nation must know 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, that too, for a token discussion of just two hours,” the BJP leader said in a social media post.
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.
Nadda’s remarks came in the wake of media reports that unearthed parliamentary archives showing widespread opposition to the treaty — even within the Congress party.
A young Atal Bihari Vajpayee, then MP from Balrampur, had also fiercely opposed the treaty, warning that appeasing Pakistan would not foster genuine friendship. “True friendship cannot be built on injustice,” he had argued.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also criticised the treaty in the recent past, 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.
Nadda said PM Modi’s decision to put the treaty in abeyance was a corrective measure to “yet another grave historical wrong committed by Congress.”