New Delhi : A public spat broke out between Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and his predecessor, Mehbooba Mufti, on social media on Friday over calls for revival of the Tulbul Navigation project, as the latter accused the government of adopting “provocative” measures amid ongoing tensions between India and Pakistan.
The Tulbul Navigation project – that seeks to rejuvenate the Jhelum-fed Wular lake in Bandipora district – was kicked off in 1987 but stalled in 2007 amid objections from Pakistan that it violated the Indus Waters Treaty. With India suspending the Treaty on April 23, a day after the Pahalgam terror attack, Mr Abdullah on Thursday called for resumption of work in the project on Wular Lake.
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… pic.twitter.com/MQbGSXJKvq
— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) May 15, 2025
In a post on X, the Chief Minister said that since the water pact with Pakistan has been kept in abeyance, “I wonder if we will be able to resume the project”. 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,” he wrote on the micro-blogging platform.
The National Conference leader said that if completed, the Tulbul project can help in using the Jhelum river for navigation purposes. “It will give us the advantage of allowing us to use the Jhelum for navigation. Under the Indus Waters Treaty governing six common rivers, all the water of the eastern rivers – Sutlej, Beas, and Ravi amounting to around 33 million acre feet (MAF) annually – has been allocated to India for unrestricted use.
J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s call to revive the Tulbul Navigation Project amid ongoing tensions between India & Pakistan is deeply unfortunate. 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… https://t.co/LZrVAhIukQ
— Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) May 16, 2025
Ms Mufti, however, launched a scathing attack on Mr Abdullah and labelled his call as “irresponsible and dangerously provocative”. The Chief Minister’s call to revive the Tulbul Navigation Project amid tensions between India and Pakistan is “deeply unfortunate”, she said in a post on X. “At a time when both countries have just stepped back from the brink of a full-fledged war – with Jammu & 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.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief said the people of the Union Territory 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,” she said.
Time will reveal who seeks to appease whom, Ms Mufti said in response, as the exchange between the two politicians continued. “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.