Smokescreen in India over Ganga Treaty extension Alarming: Farakka Committee

The Ganges at the Hardinge Bridge point in the dry season. Photo collected.

Dhaka, September 9, 2026: The International Farakka Committee (IFC), has said that Indian leaders’ making centre-state negotiations on Ganges water a condition for extending the 30-year treaty with Bangladesh is alarming. The treaty will expire on December 11 next. 

This stand runs the risk of the creation of a smokescreen like one that led to India’s failure to sign a treaty on the Teesta in 2011 due to a stance taken by then West Bengal's Momta Banarjee. That treaty was agreed upon between Dhaka and New Delhi before the Dhaka visit of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on 6-7 September 2011, leaders of IFC said in a joint statement on Wednesday September 9. 

The IFC noted that Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has assured Bihar its water requirements would be taken into consideration before any decision is made on renewing the Ganges treaty, as per a report published in the Indian influential dailies The Hindu and Indian Express on September 2. His assurance followed a demand made by Bihar government to meet the state’s demand. 

Earlier, West Bengal government also wrote to New Delhi saying it should first meet the demand of Kolkata Port, Hoogli and Bhagirathi rivers. Sanjay Jhao former water resources minister of Bihar raised the matter in the Rajya Sabha on August 6. Indian External Affairs Minister gave a written reply on 28 August.

Meanwhile, on August 21 spokesman of Indian External Affairs Ministry Randhir Jaiswal told the news media that talks on extension of the Ganges Water Sharing Treaty was continuing at the technical level where taking a decision is near impossible. The Ganges water sharing Treaties of 1977 and 1996 were signed at the political level, the first one between Bangladesh Minister Rear Admiral Mahbub Ali Khan and Indian Minister Jagjiban Ram, and the second one between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed and Indian Prime Minister Deva Gowda.

Informed sources say, the Bangladesh government has sent a letter to the Indian Government for extension of the Ganges Treaty. But so far no response has come from New Delhi.

The IFC leaders noted that the Ganges Treaty will expire in just three months. But before the talks have been finalised or elevated to the political level smokescreen is being created over it in India. This is only a reminder of how the Teesta Treaty was stalled in 2011, they said urging Dhaka’s diplomatic moves with greater urgency than the recent successful bid for United Nations presidency.

The signatories to the statement were: Chief Adviser of IFC Prof. Jasim Uddin Ahmad; Syed Tipu Sultan, Chairman, Mohammad Hossain Khan, Secretary General of IFC New York; Mostafa Kamal Majumder, President, Mahbub Alam, General Secretary and Rafiqul Islam Azad, Joint Secretary IFC Bangladesh.