Nehru allowed Pakistan 80% plus of Sindhu River’s water: Modi

New Delhi: Prime Minister Modi slammed the Congress over the Indus Waters Treaty, put in abeyance by his government, saying Jawaharlal Nehru compromised India's interest to "burnish his image" and gave a nod to the agreement without taking his Cabinet or Parliament into confidence, the sources said.

Modi told MPs to take to the masses the alleged betrayal of India's interests by the first prime minister and how his government has decided to undo the agreement's adverse impact on the country, especially farmers.

Raising the Indus Waters Treaty during his address at an NDA parliamentary party meeting, Modi said India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, allowed over 80 per cent of the river's water to be used by Pakistan, betraying the interest of Indian farmers, PTI reported.

Modi claimed that Nehru partitioned India twice: allowing a separate Pakistan nation and signing the Indus Waters Treaty.

He said when parliamentarians, including former prime minister and then Jana Sangh MP Atal Bihari Vajpayee, protested, a two-hour debate was allowed in Parliament, according to the sources.

Amid criticism, Nehru later lamented that for a few "buckets" of water so much hue and cry was being raised, Modi said, noting that the first prime minister had also played down China's capture of Indian territory in Ladakh by claiming that not a blade of grass grows there.

Nehru later told a colleague that he believed that the agreement would help resolve other issues with Pakistan, but he noted that it did not happen.

The prime minister said his government has been undoing the sins of that era, the sources added.