India has sharply questioned the continued relevance of the Indus Waters Treaty, arguing that a pact negotiated more than six decades ago cannot be treated as a “perpetual entitlement”, while launching a blistering attack on Pakistan at the UN Human Rights Council and describing the neighbouring country as a “Frankenstein state” that nurtures terrorism as an instrument of policy.
Exercising its Right of Reply during the 62nd session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, India said it defied logic that a country exporting terror could continue to seek the benefits of cooperation based on goodwill and friendship.
“Our position on the Indus Water Treaty is well known. It defies logic that a state which exports terror as an instrument of policy continues to demand the privileges of cooperation predicated on goodwill and friendship,” India’s First Secretary at the Permanent Mission in Geneva, Anupama Singh, said.
She asserted that the treaty, signed in 1960, had become outdated and required re-evaluation in light of changing realities, including climate change, technological advancements and the growing need for sustainable and clean energy.
“A treaty negotiated in 1960 cannot be treated as a perpetual entitlement–insulated from accountability, detached from present-day realities and untouched by the profound changes of the past six decades,” she said.
The remarks came as India mounted a strong rebuttal to Pakistan and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) over their references to Jammu and Kashmir during the Human Rights Council session. Rejecting what she described as “baseless and malicious allegations”, Singh accused Islamabad of using propaganda to divert attention from its domestic failures and continued support for terrorism.
In one of the strongest formulations employed by India at an international forum in recent years, she said Pakistan’s claims of being a victim of terrorism rang hollow when its own Defence Minister had publicly acknowledged the country’s role in hosting and training terrorists.
“This is the country where the sitting Defence Minister boasts of hosting, training and deploying terrorists as state policy, and yet Pakistan calls itself a victim of terrorism. Indeed, a paradox which only Pakistan could sustain,” she said. “It is a living example of a Frankenstein state which is shocked when its own monster bites back,” the Indian diplomat added.
Reiterating New Delhi’s position on Jammu and Kashmir, Singh said the UT “was, is and will always remain an integral and inalienable part of India”, adding that the only unresolved issue was Pakistan’s “illegal occupation of Indian territories and their return”.
India also accused Pakistan of suppressing fundamental rights in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, citing the “ongoing tragedy in Rawalakot”, the killing of civilians and what it described as a brutal crackdown on protests.
According to Singh, decades of military land grabs, demographic engineering and denial of basic freedoms had created a situation in which even demands for “bread, electricity, rights and dignity” were being met with “bullets and brutality”. She said Pakistan would serve its people better by addressing its own internal challenges rather than indulging in what she termed “seasonal theatrics” at the UN body.
The Tribune, now published from Chandigarh, started publication on February 2, 1881, in Lahore (now in Pakistan). It was started by Sardar Dyal Singh Majithia, a public-spirited philanthropist, and is run by a trust comprising five eminent persons as trustees.
The Tribune, the largest selling English daily in North India, publishes news and views without any bias or prejudice of any kind. Restraint and moderation, rather than agitational language and partisanship, are the hallmarks of the newspaper. It is an independent newspaper in the real sense of the term.
The Tribune has two sister publications, Punjabi Tribune (in Punjabi) and Dainik Tribune (in Hindi).
Remembering Sardar Dyal Singh Majithia
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