PM Modi tells NDA meet how 'lopsided' IWT was signed: 'Tired of washing Congress sins'

PM Narendra Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday spoke about the Indus Waters Treaty during the NDA Parliamentary Party meeting in the national capital.

According to News18, the PM told the MPs how the 'lopsided' Treay was signed without Parliament nod. PM Modi reportedly blamed the Congress for IWT and said he is 'tired of washing the sins of Congress'.

PM Modi also alleged that former PM Jawaharlal Nehru surrendered 80% of the Indus river system’s waters to Pakistan.

A day earlier News18 had reported that on November 30, 1960, the Lok Sabha took up the IWT for discussion. It was short but very intense. The treaty reportedly  had been signed without taking the Parliament or opposition leaders into confidence. By the time Parliament discussed the treaty, it was already ratified.

BJP national president JP Nadda on Monday blamed Nehru for the “blunder” of the IWT. Nadda said the treaty was a result of Nehru’s “personal ambitions”that “permanently compromised India’s water security and national interest”. In a long post on social media platform X, he shared how the treaty was finalised, despite opposition from within Nehru’s party.

He said it was a “Himalayan blunder”, that “PM Modi corrected” by putting the Treaty in abeyance.

During his Independence Day address, PM Modi hit out at Nehru for the "one-sided" Treaty. The water-sharing pact, he said, had led to the waters of rivers originating in India "irrigating the fields of our enemies, while the farmers and the land of my own country remain thirsty without water".

The NDA vice presidential candidate C P Radhakrishnan was felicitated at the meeting. Radhakrishnan is likely to file his nomination on Wednesday.

With the BJP-led NDA enjoying a comfortable majority in the electoral college comprising MPs from the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, Radhakrishnan's win is almost a certainty amid indications from the opposition INDIA bloc that it will field its own candidate and force a contest.

Radhakrishnan (67), a seasoned BJP leader, is currently the Maharashtra governor and hails from Tamil Nadu.

“PM Modi briefed NDA MPs on CP Radhakrishnan’s background…The Indus Waters Treaty was signed in the wrong way by Pandit Nehru, and Parliament was not taken into confidence. In today’s time, it is not in the country’s interest," NCP MP Praful Patel told PTI.