Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has termed Pakistan’s latest water-related scare narrative a “baseless attempt”.
His remarks came after a senior aide to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Rana Ihsaan Afzal, claimed that the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan could set a precedent for China to block the Brahmaputra River to India. India suspended the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty in April, following the Pahalgam terrorist attack that killed 26 civilians.
The move marked the first formal halt to a treaty that had survived six decades of conflict and was seen as a rare channel of cooperation between the two countries.
Sarma responded to the claim, "What if China stops the Brahmaputra's water to India?" by laying out a fact-based rebuttal.
"Let's dismantle this myth, not with fear, but with facts and national clarity," Sarma wrote on X. He pointed out that the Brahmaputra is a river that grows in India, not one that shrinks due to upstream control.
The CM said China contributes only 30–35% of the Brahmaputra’s total flow — mostly through glacial melt and limited Tibetan rainfall. The remaining 65–70% is generated within India.
“Even if China were to reduce water flow (unlikely as China has never threatened or indicated in any official forum), it may actually help India mitigate the annual floods in Assam, which displace lakhs and destroy livelihoods every year,” he said. “Meanwhile, Pakistan — which has exploited 74 years of preferential water access under the Indus Waters Treaty — now panics as India rightfully reclaims its sovereign rights.”
The Assam CM said Brahmaputra is not controlled by a single source — it is powered by “our geography, our monsoon, and our civilisational resilience”.
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