 "Omar, Mehbooba lock horns on social media over Tulbul barrage project")
Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and his predecessor and People's Democratic Party (PDP) President Mehbooba Mufti engaged in a social media spat on Friday over Abdullah's call to revive the Tulbul Navigation Barrage project on Wular Lake. During the course of their exchange on 'X', Abdullah accused Mufti of lacking consistency, pointing to her statements in the past that were almost identical to what he has said on the issue.
In a post on Thursday, Abdullah had posed the question if work could resume on the Tulbul Navigation Barrage project in view of the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT). "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. Now that the IWT has been 'temporarily suspended', I wonder if we will be able to resume the project," Abdullah’s post read.
"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 said.
On Friday, Mufti posted on X, stating that Abdullah's call to revive the Tulbul Navigation Barrage project with the IWT now suspended was "irresponsible" and "dangerously provocative". "J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah's call to revive the Tulbul Navigation Project amid ongoing tensions between India and Pakistan is deeply unfortunate," she said.
"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.
Mufti said: "Our people 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."
In his reply, Abdullah said Mufti refuses to acknowledge that the IWT was a "historic betrayal" with the people of J&K because of her "blind lust" to score "cheap" publicity points and "please" some people across the border. Abdullah said he has always opposed the treaty and 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.
The PDP president upped the ante and claimed that National Conference (NC) founder Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah had advocated J&K’s accession to Pakistan, but sided with India after getting power. "Time will reveal who seeks to appease whom. 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, adding that "in contrast, the PDP has consistently upheld its convictions and commitments and unlike your party, 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”.
In another of his replies, Abdullah said he will rise above the "gutter" where the PDP president wanted to take the conversation to. "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 (Mohammad Sayeed) Sahib and 'North Pole South Pole' out of this," he said, in a reference to the past alliance of the PDP and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
"You keep advocating the interests of anyone you want to and I'll keep advocating for the interests of the people of J&K to use our own rivers for our own benefit. I'm not going to stop the water, just use more of it for ourselves. Now I think I'll do some real work and you can keep posting," the NC leader added.
Later in the day, in another post, Abdullah put out a past news report and video that showed Mufti stating that J&K has suffered due to the IWT. "Just leaving it out there because ‘consistency’ is in such short supply," the J&K CM said.