Measured reply needed, not kneejerk reactions

VINAY DWIVEDI, Benaulim | APRIL 24, 2025, 08:18 PM IST

India has taken some steps in response to the dastardly attack on tourists in Pahalgam by terrorists and their handlers in Pakistan. Holding in abeyance the Indus Water treaty of 1960 is a grey area though and doesn't seem to have been thought through properly. It is more of a kneejerk reaction than a measured response. Normalising weaponisation of river waters is extremely risky. Just to put things in perspective, China is building the world's largest dam on the Brahmaputra barely 32 kms north of Arunachal Pradesh, we have been trying to block it's construction for the past few years but to no avail. The dam will give China the power to create droughts and floods at will in all of North East India as the Brahmaputra flows through Assam, West Bengal, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Sikkim. For us to be violating accepted global norms for whatever reasons is sheer lunacy. Because exactly what we do to Pakistan is what China can do to us, let's not forget that the latter is Pakistan's staunchest ally. Geopolitical factors too need to be weighed in before taking retaliatory action.



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