Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi

New Delhi, May 30: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Nishikant Dubey on Saturday launched a sharp attack on the Congress party over past water-sharing agreements with Bangladesh, alleging that decisions taken during the tenure of former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi had compromised the interests of Indian farmers and border states.

In a post on social media platform X, Dubey termed the agreements a “dark chapter” in the Congress party’s history and claimed that India had shared river waters with Bangladesh at the cost of domestic needs.

Referring to historical arrangements, Dubey said that on May 30, 1982, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had renewed consent for sharing the Ganga waters with a Bangladeshi delegation. He also pointed to earlier and subsequent agreements in 1976, 1982 and 1985, alleging that repeated pacts were made without safeguarding Indian interests.

He further claimed that states such as Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh were facing water scarcity, while river waters were being shared externally. He also raised concerns over the Teesta and Brahmaputra rivers, stating that their potential for irrigation and power generation was not being fully utilised within India.

“Farmers are suffering due to water shortage, but water is being given away,” Dubey alleged, adding that the Congress had pursued “vote-bank politics” at the cost of national interest.

His remarks also referred to historical water-sharing frameworks between India and Bangladesh, including the 1982 Memorandum of Understanding on the Ganga waters and the interim arrangement on the Teesta river signed in 1983, under which water allocation was divided among India and Bangladesh with a portion kept unallocated pending further studies.

The agreements between the two countries were part of broader efforts under the Joint Rivers Commission to manage transboundary river flows and reach long-term solutions on water sharing.