A public spat broke out between Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and his predecessor Mehbooba Mufti on social media on Friday over calls for revival of the Tulbul Navigation project after the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty.
Ms Mufti accused Mr Abdullah of adopting "provocative" measures amid ongoing tensions between India and Pakistan. Mr Abdullah, however, alleged that the former Chief Minister was trying to score "cheap publicity points" and "please some people" in Pakistan by opposing the idea.
The Tulbul Navigation project - that seeks to rejuvenate the Jhelum-fed Wular lake in Bandipora district - was launched in 1987 but paused in 2007 amid objections from Pakistan that it violated the Indus Waters Treaty. With India suspending the Treaty on April 23, a day after the Pahalgam terror attack, Mr Abdullah on Thursday called for resumption of work in the project on Wular Lake.
In a post on X, the Chief Minister said that since the water pact with Pakistan has been kept in abeyance, "I wonder if we will be able to resume the project".
"The Wular lake in North Kashmir. The civil works you see in the video is the Tulbul Navigation Barrage. It was started in the early 1980s but had to be abandoned under pressure from Pakistan citing the Indus Water Treaty," he wrote on the micro-blogging platform.
The National Conference leader said that if completed, the Tulbul project can help in using the Jhelum river for navigation purposes. "It will give us the advantage of allowing us to use the Jhelum for navigation. It will also improve the power generation of downstream power projects, especially in winter," he added.
Under the Indus Waters Treaty governing six common rivers, all the water of the eastern rivers - Sutlej, Beas, and Ravi amounting to around 33 million acre feet (MAF) annually - has been allocated to India for unrestricted use. The waters of western rivers - Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab - amounting to around 135 MAF annually have been assigned largely to Pakistan.
Ms Mufti, however, launched a scathing attack on Mr Abdullah and labelled his call as "irresponsible and dangerously provocative".
The Chief Minister's call to revive the Tulbul Navigation Project amid tensions between India and Pakistan is "deeply unfortunate", she said in a post on X. "At a time when both countries have just stepped back from the brink of a full-fledged war - with Jammu and Kashmir bearing the brunt through the loss of innocent lives, widespread destruction and immense suffering - such statements are not only irresponsible but also dangerously provocative," she said.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief said the people of the Union Territory deserve peace as much as anyone else in the country. "Weaponising something as essential and life-giving as water is not only inhumane but also risks internationalising what should remain a bilateral matter," she said.
The former Chief Minister's comments evoked a sharp response from Mr Abdullah, who accused her of attempting to "please some people across the border".
"Actually what is unfortunate is that with your blind lust to try to score cheap publicity points and please some people sitting across the border, you refuse to acknowledge that the IWT has been one of the biggest historic betrayals of the interests of the people of J&K," he told his rival.
"I have always opposed this treaty and I will continue to do so. Opposing a blatantly unfair treaty is in no way, shape, size or form warmongering, it's about correcting a historic injustice that denied the people of J&K the right to use our water for ourselves," he added.
Time will reveal who seeks to appease whom, Ms Mufti said in response, as the back-and-forth continued. "However, it's worth recalling that your esteemed grandfather Sheikh Sahab once advocated for accession to Pakistan for over two decades after losing power. But post being reinstated as Chief Minister he suddenly reversed his stance by aligning with India," she said.
On the contrary, she added, the PDP has consistently upheld its convictions and commitments, unlike the NC whose loyalties have shifted dramatically according to political expediency.
"We don't need to stoke tensions or adopt warmongering rhetoric to validate our dedication. Our actions speak for themselves," she said.
Mr Abdullah told Ms Mufti that she can keep "advocating the interests of anyone you want to & I'll keep advocating for the interests of the people of J&K to use our own rivers for our own benefit".
"Is that really the best you can do? Taking cheap shots at a person you yourself have called Kashmir's tallest leader. I'll rise above the gutter you want to take this conversation to by keeping the late Mufti Sahib and 'North Pole South Pole' out of this," he said.
"I'm not going to stop the water, just use more of it for ourselves. Now I think I'll do some real work & you can keep posting," he added.
In a separate post later, the Chief Minister shared a news report from 2016, which quoted Ms Mufti as saying that "Jammu and Kashmir has suffered due to the Indus Waters Treaty". "Just leaving this out there because "consistency" is in such short supply," he said.
The Indus Waters Treaty, signed on September 19, 1960, sets out a mechanism for cooperation and information exchange between India and Pakistan on the use of the waters of a number of cross-border rivers. India has been given the right to generate hydroelectricity through run of the river projects on the western rivers subject to specific criteria for design and operation. Pakistan has the right to raise objections on the design of Indian hydroelectric projects on western rivers.
Relations between India and Pakistan, that took a nosedive in 2019 with the revocation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, deteriorated further after terrorists shot dead 26 tourists in Pahalgam on April 22. India responded by launching Operation Sindoor, targeting nine terror bases in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir. This escalated bilateral tensions as it led to strikes and counter-strikes between the two nations. On May 10, India and Pakistan reached an agreement to stop all firing and military action on land, air and sea.
