CORPORATE WINDOW: Abandoning a legacy treaty

Even though there exists no provision for the unilateral abrogation or suspension of the Indus Water Treaty (IWT), India’s decision to “hold in abeyance” the 64-year-old water-sharing pact in the wake of a militant attack in the tourist destination of Pahalgam in the Occupied Kashmir shows that it is ready to go the extra mile to choke the lifeline water flows to Pakistan. In doing so, New Delhi has also chosen to ignore warnings from its own experts that such an arbitrary step risks threatening regional stability by having ripple effects on water cooperation within the wider Indus River basin shared by India, Pakistan, China and Afghanistan, besides causing it reputational loss and damaging its image as a responsible nation. This is not the first attempt by India to exit the treaty brokered by the World Bank in 1960 or try to force Pakistan to agree to modify it. Since the 2016 armed attack on an Indian army brigade headquarters in Uri, India has consistently tried to weaken the IWT in an attempt to wiggle out of it.