India launches pre-feasibility study to divert Chenab water
NEW DELHI: India has launched a pre-feasibility study for the construction of the Chenab-Ravi-Beas-Sutlej link canal project aimed at diverting water from the Chenab currently flowing into Pakistan under the currently inactive Indus Waters Treaty (IWT).
The project proposes to channel 15-20 million acre-feet (MAF) of water from the Chenab to Indian states of Punjab, Haryana, and Rajasthan, as part of a broader effort to strengthen domestic water infrastructure and assert greater control over Indus basin resources. The move follows the effective suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty under which India was permitted to use 20% of the basin's water.
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Indian Express
38 minutes ago
- Indian Express
How latest drive to deport illegal Bangladeshi immigrants stands out
Since Operation Sindoor was launched on May 7, Indian authorities have 'pushed back' more than 2,500 allegedly illegal Bangladeshi immigrants across the international border, What distinguishes this drive is the urgency and scale: the government has not only issued a 30-day deadline for verification of illegal immigrants, but identified individuals are now being transported in Indian Air Force aircraft from various states to border outposts. This has, however, raised concerns around due process, humanitarian issues, and pending litigation, especially reports of people being left in the no man's land between India and Bangladesh. Migration between what is now Bangladesh and India dates back to British times. * The colonial administration encouraged settlement in the then sparsely populated Assam by bringing in labourers from Bengal and North India. * Post-Partition, millions of refugees from East Pakistan, mostly Hindus, moved to India. Amid the brutal Pakistani crackdown on Bengalis, some 10 million people, mostly Hindus, sought refuge in India in 1971 alone. * Over the decades, economic migration from Bangladesh to India has continued, with many crossing the border into states like Assam and West Bengal in search of jobs. This influx has led to significant socio-political tension, particularly in Assam. While the India-Bangladesh border is largely fenced today, gaps remain, and illegal migration persists, with Bangladeshi workers visible in metropolitan labour markets across India. There is presently no official or universally accepted figure about the number of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants in India, and estimates have varied widely. In 2004, then MoS (Home) Sriprakash Jaiswal told Parliament that 12 million illegal Bangladeshi immigrants resided in India. (This claim was withdrawn following protests by the Assam and West Bengal governments.) Former RAW chief Sanjeev Tripathi, in a 2016 paper, estimated the number to be more than 15 million, based on comparisons of census data from Bangladesh and India from 1981 to 2011. The same year, MoS (Home) Kiren Rijiju told Parliament that 20 million illegal Bangladeshi immigrants were living in India, based on unofficial assessments. The deportation of illegal immigrants has been an enduring part of India's domestic policy, cutting across political lines. The UPA government too deported illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. RPN Singh, who served as MoS (Home) from 2012 to 2014, claimed in 2018 that the Manmohan Singh government had deported 82,000 immigrants. These efforts have further picked up under the Narendra Modi government, driven by both national security concerns and ideological motivations. In 2018, then-BJP president and current Union Home Minister Amit Shah had referred to Bangladeshi immigrants as 'termites'. Since 2018, the Modi government has also pursued a more tech-driven approach to the problem. * That year, it launched the portal to collect the biographic and biometric data of Rohingya immigrants. This was later expanded to include Bangladeshi immigrants as well. * In 2023, the government revamped this portal into the Foreigners Identification Portal (FIP) to capture more detailed profiles of suspected illegal immigrants. States/UTs and the Ministry of External Affairs were given access to the portal, which is used to upload and verify details of suspected illegal immigrants. If verification fails, deportation is initiated with help from the Foreigners' Regional Registration Offices (FRROs). * In 2023, the government also introduced a District Police Module on the Immigration Visa Foreigner Registration Tracking (IVFRT) portal to track overstaying foreigners. * Further, biometric capture infrastructure — fingerprint scanners, cameras, and computers — has been deployed across police stations, detention centres, and Border Out Posts (BOPs) of the BSF. A renewed push, novel strategy While the issue was never truly on the back burner, deportation drives have intensified following the terror attack in Pahalgam on April 22, and the beginning of Operation Sindoor on May 7. Currently, states such as Gujarat, Delhi, Assam, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan are rounding up identified illegal immigrants and transporting them to border points in Assam, Tripura, and Meghalaya. From here, they are 'pushed back' across the border by the Border Security Force (BSF). A senior security official told The Indian Express that such deportations have historically had limited success. 'The border is porous. These people often return,' he said. However, the current operation marks a more coordinated, digitised approach to the problem of illegal migration. With biometric data now captured on the FIP, the government hopes re-entry can be checked. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has also instructed authorities issuing Aadhaar, Voter ID, and Ration Card to cross-check applicants against the immigrant database before issuing documents. The MHA has set a 30-day deadline for States and UTs to verify suspected illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar. If verification fails, deportation proceedings will follow. An integrated server will support this process, bringing together data from the IVFRT system, the FIP portal, and the India-Myanmar Border Pass System. Some questions remain Questions around due process, humanitarian concerns, and bilateral sensitivities persist. As more people are rounded up and transported to the borders, courts and civil rights groups are likely to scrutinise the legal and ethical contours of this drive, especially in cases involving pending litigation or individuals caught in border limbo. On May 8, Bangladesh sent a diplomatic note to India registering its protest over the issue. Country's Foreign Affairs Adviser Md Touhid Hossain said on Tuesday that another such note was in the works. 'We see it (deportation) is happening. It is not feasible to resist physically,' he said, stressing the need for diplomatic and legal processes to be followed in resolving consular issues. The issue has always been diplomatically sensitive. In a 2022 BSF-BGB meeting in Dhaka, the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) reportedly told India that illegal immigration from Bangladesh has reduced, largely due to economic improvements. At one point in 2020-21, Bangladesh's per capita income ($1,962) was higher than India's ($1,935) — a data point that complicates the narrative of large-scale economic migration.
News18
41 minutes ago
- News18
News18 Poll: Indus Waters Treaty Signed By Nehru Surrender Of National Interest, Say 83% People
Last Updated: News18 conducted a public poll to gauge the mood of the nation on India's Operation Sindoor and associated responses to Pakistan's terror tactics Pakistan has written four letters requesting India to reconsider its decision to keep the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) in suspension after the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam on April 22 that killed 26 tourists. But India has clearly said that, like terror and trade cannot go together, blood and water also can't flow together. The Narendra Modi government has underscored that the treaty will remain in abeyance until Islamabad 'credibly and irrevocably" ends its support for cross-border terrorism. News18 has conducted a public poll to gauge the mood of the nation on India's Operation Sindoor and associated responses to Pakistan's terror tactics. A key question was, 'The BJP says that the Indus Water Treaty signed by Jawaharlal Nehru and Ayub Khan is a surrender of national interest. Do you agree?" To this, 83.38% of the respondents said 'Yes" and only 16.62% chose 'No". The poll was conducted over two days, May 6 and May 7, 2025, using state-of-the-art software. It was held on News18's websites and social media platforms, and also via television channels using QR codes. A total of 14,671 responses were collected. Union minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan recently reignited the debate over the Indus Waters Treaty, criticising Jawaharlal Nehru for allocating 80% of the Indus basin water flow to Pakistan under the 1960 agreement. 'This is a historic decision; the Indus Waters Treaty has been cancelled. This is not an ordinary incident. When the Indus Waters Treaty was signed, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was the Prime Minister; he gave 80% of the water to Pakistan. Not only was water given, along with water, 83 crore rupees were also given, which is currently worth 5 thousand 500 crore rupees. By depriving our own farmers, we are giving water to those who are responsible for breeding terrorists," he added. Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has also criticised Nehru for signing the treaty and referred to it as the 'greatest strategic blunder in India's history". Taking to X, he wrote, 'Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru's signing of the Indus Waters Treaty in 1960 stands as one of the greatest strategic blunders in India's history. Despite India's natural upper riparian advantage, Nehru, under immense pressure from the then-American administration and the World Bank, handed away over 80% of the Indus basin waters to Pakistan—gifting full control over the mighty Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab rivers, while restricting India to the smaller eastern rivers (Ravi, Beas, Sutlej)." India and Pakistan signed the Indus Waters Treaty in 1960, with the World Bank as an additional signatory. The pact sought to divide the water of the Indus river and its tributaries equitably between the two countries. Under the treaty, water from three eastern rivers—Beas, Ravi, and Sutlej—was allocated to India, and that from the three western rivers—Chenab, Indus, and Jhelum—to Pakistan. The treaty also permitted both nations to use the other's rivers for certain purposes, such as small hydroelectric projects that require little or no water storage.
New Indian Express
an hour ago
- New Indian Express
Immigrants, rebels, freedom fighters
Should one write history just for academic study, or should it be written with common people in mind? For author Rana Preet Gill, the aim of writing The Ghadar Movement: A Forgotten Struggle (Penguin) was to make a larger Indian audience, and not just Punjabis, understand the Ghadar Party's history and the importance of what they did more than 100 years ago. 'I wanted more and more people from across the nation to connect with this important chapter of Indian history. Hence, I wrote a narrative history, rather than an academic history, and emphasised storytelling. Many Ghadarites from places such as Hoshiarpur and Jalandhar joined the movement. Not many of today's generation are aware of them, at the most they are shadowy figures,' she says. Origin story Divided into 38 chapters, the book traces the party's origin and the conditions that led to its birth. 'In search of a better future, many poor Punjabis from peasant families moved to places like Canada and London. They also came into close contact with several Indian revolutionaries there; it was also their first brush with political ideas such as Liberalism and Marxism. Educated Punjabis such as Lala Har Dayal met revolutionaries like Shyamji Krishnavarma and VD Savarkar. Savarkar inducted Har Dayal in his group Abhinav Bharat,' she adds. The party & a newspaper It was in 1912 that Punjabi peasants, exiled revolutionaries, and students joined hands to form the Hindi Association of the Pacific Coast (what the Ghadar Party was first called) in Portland, United States. Sohan Singh Bhakna was its first president, GD Kumar was the secretary, and Kanshi Ram, the treasurer. The organisation advocated armed resistance. Lala Har Dayal and his close aide Bhai Paramanand joined the organisation a year later. The organisation not only focused on bringing an end to British rule on the Indian subcontinent, but also worked towards the abolition of casteism. Religion for them was a private matter, and any show of religious symbols was discouraged among its members. To spread its ideas among the masses, the organisation brought out a newspaper, The Ghadar (in Urdu and Punjabi in Gurumukhi script). 'It became extremely popular, and it gave a call to Indians living in the US to join the anti-British movement,' says Gill. Rise and decline May 23, 1914, is a landmark date in Ghadarite history. Gurdit Singh, an Indian businessman, chartered the Komagata Maru, a Japanese ship, to transport 376 Indian passengers (predominantly Sikhs) to Canada, hoping to circumvent Canada's restrictive immigration policies. The ship was denied permission and the aftermath was brutal. Many Indian immigrants, working as informers in the Canadian immigration department, were murdered, says Gill. Hopkins, an Anglo-Indian working for the immigration department, was assassinated by Mewa Singh, a Ghadar activist in Vancouver. Party members eventually headed towards India to initiate a full-fledged struggle against the British, but many were arrested. 'The Gharadites did not make secrecy a part of revolutionary tactics, and hence, it was easy for the British to take them down,' says the author. 'Its senior leaders were arrested. Besides, a section of activists in India also started dacoity in Punjab, which made them unpopular.' Can the Ghadar movement be seen as a 'failure' when it stirred the revolutionary spirit among many Indians, questions Gill. Bhagat Singh was one of the revolutionaries it inspired. 'Singh was inspired by Kartar Singh Sarabha, an important member of the Ghadar Party. He used to keep Sarabha's picture in his pocket,' she says.
