What is apt > IWT or MFN or Surgical strikes?

Indus Water Treaty, MFN status, and armed action –India’s multi-pronged response to Pakistan after the Uri incident .Friends a lighter view on this and how it affects? Is the time really come to review the Indus Water treaty and take all these actions?

First, the Indus Water Treaty (IWT) is a water sharing arrangement which was signed in Karachi on September 1960 by then Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru and Pakistan’s President General Ayub Khan. The World Bank brokered the treaty and is also a party to it. There is no doubt that Pakistan’s economy, lives of its citizens and their livelihoods are intricately linked to the western rivers of Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab while India has the eastern rivers of Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej. Regulating the waters of these rivers and their tributaries can create huge problems for Pakistan. The Indus river system distributes about 175 billion cubic meters of water to Pakistan of which over 70% is used for irrigation of farming land. This irrigated land produces about 90% of Pakistan’s food grains and contributes about one –fourth of nation’s GDP. Not just agriculture the Indus water also provides employment to almost 45% of Pakistan’s labor force and supports, directly or indirectly, three-fourth of the country’s more than 60% revenue in foreign exchange earnings to Pakistan’s national income.

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Second MFN status: After the incident, there were speculations that the Indian government was planning to withdraw the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status from Pakistan.
According to the MFN principle of the WTO’S General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) to which India is a signatory/contracting party, each of the WTO member countries (including India and Pakistan in this case), should “treat all the other members equally as ‘most –favoured trading partners”. The Bilateral trade between the two nation is just $2.6 billion in 2015-16-which represented a minuscule 0.4% of India’s overall goods trade worth $643.3 billion in the same year. But if India actually takes this step it will lose its goodwill, both in the South Asian region and at WTO. India enjoys a trade surplus and is party to a free trade pact called SAFTA, which also includes Pakistan.

Rest the surgical strike that cleared India’s stand, I think there is no need to describe this .India will need to adopt a deterrent strategy for engaging Pakistan by leveraging its diplomatic and economic strength without blurring the distinction between the deep state and the civil society of Pakistan and most importantly, without falling to the temptation of public posturing.

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We still need to think why these steps needs to be taken and is this really essential to take them against Pakistan. Though Pakistan had done many odds against our nation but are these things the only solution? Our Government is trying at all the levels to prove things against Pakistan and we have seen pretty good results but still one says to have good relations with the neighbour. I would like to hear from you all. What do you think is appropriate? Comment here and let’s have a discussion.

About the Author: Snehil is a Mechanical engineer working with a renowned bank. He is a great sportsman and enthusiast who has played almost all the sports. He loves reading blogs and want to serve the nation.