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| India-Pakistan |
| India not behind water shortage |
| 2010-04-05 |
| KARACHI — The Indian high commissioner has rejected Pakistan's allegations that India was responsible for the current water shortage faced by Pakistan and urged the Permanent Indus Commission (PIC) to play a more effective role to resolve the issue. Indian High Commissioner Sharat Sabharwal made the remarks during a function organised by the Karachi Council on Foreign Relations and the Pakistan-India Citizenship Forum on Saturday. “It is wrong to blame India for the current water shortage in Pakistan. In fact India too suffered serious droughts in the year 2009 and the rainfall during the monsoon season was 20 per cent less than the normal,' he emphasised. Sabharwal also rejected Pakistan's allegations that construction of dams and other structures by India on rivers in the Indian-administered Kahsmir was depriving Pakistan of its share of water. “The water flows would have showed a progressive decline and that so far has not been the case,' he remarked. The Indian ambassador also stated that India had no “storage and diversion canals network' to stop Pakistan's water share, and all claims in this regard were just baseless allegations. “Of late, it has been alleged in Pakistan that India is responsible for its water shortage. These claims have nothing to do with reality. On the contrary India provided Pakistan its share of water during the wars of 1965 and 1971,' he claimed. Currently, Pakistan and India are at odds over water distribution, with Pakistan accusing its neighbour of stopping the flow of water by constructing dams. Fears of a possible confrontation between the two countries over the water issue have been expressed by many government functionaries in Islamabad who also demanded its resolution at the earliest. Sabharwal stressed the best option to resolve the water issue was the Indus Water Treaty which should be utilised more effectively, besides the PIC under which the two countries had met for 100 times. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #4 ION TOPIX > CHINA CLAIMS NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR MEKONG RIVER EXHAUSTION + PROLONGED DROUGHT DAMAGING FOOD CROPS IN ASIA. * IIRC SAME > LACK OF WATER THE TRUE ORIGIN OF THE [bloody] DARFUR CONFLICT? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2010-04-05 22:27 |
| #3 Not by everyone From an article by Wing Commander (retd) R V Parasnis... Soon after Independence the first commander-in-chief of the Indian armed forces, General Sir Robert Lockhart, presented a paper outlining a plan for the growth of the Indian Army to Prime Minister Nehru. Nehru's reply: "We don't need a defence plan. Our policy is non-violence. We foresee no military threats. You can scrap the army. The police are good enough to meet our security needs." He didn't waste much time. On September 16, 1947, he directed that the army's then strength of 280,000 be brought down to 150,000. Even in fiscal 1950-51, when the Chinese threat had begun to loom large on the horizon, 50,000 army personnel were sent home as per his original plan to disband the armed forces. After Independence, he once noticed a few men in uniform in a small office the army had in North Block, and angrily had them evicted. Soon after Independence he separated the army, navy, and air force from a unified command and abolished the post of commander-in-chief of the armed forces, thus bringing down the status of the seniormost military chief. He continued to demote the status of the three service chiefs at irregular intervals in the order of precedence in the official government protocol, a practice loyally continued by successive governments to the benefit of politicians and bureaucrats. During the 1947-48 war with Pakistan in Kashmir, Nehru interfered with purely military decisions at will, which delayed the war and changed the ultimate outcome in Pakistan's favour. He developed a precedent to violate channels and levels of communications at that time. His penchant for verbal orders to the various army commanders, of which he kept no records, violated the chain of command. After the defeat inflicted by China, Nehru who honestly believed in India-Chinese brotherhood was shell shocked. He died a short while later. "I remember many a time when our senior generals came to us, and wrote to the defence ministry saying that they wanted certain things... If we had had foresight, known exactly what would happen, we would have done something else... what India has learnt from the Chinese invasion is that in the world of today there is no place for weak nations... We have been living in an unreal world of our own creation." - Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajya Sabha, 1963 |
| Posted by: john frum 2010-04-05 13:02 |
| #2 Not the only thing he was wrong about. But I'd bet he is still revered in India. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2010-04-05 10:55 |
| #1 Under the Indus Waters Treaty, Pakistan gets 80% of the water. Nehru believed this concession would foster friendship. |
| Posted by: john frum 2010-04-05 10:17 |