Inter-state river water disputes have long ranked among the most difficult challenges confronting India’s federal system. Unlike many political disagreements, conflicts over water touch the very survival of millions of people. Time and again, even the intervention of the judiciary has failed to bring lasting peace.

The prolonged dispute over the Cauvery waters demonstrated that even a verdict of the Supreme Court could not entirely eliminate mistrust or prevent periodic confrontation.

It is against this backdrop that the Memorandum of Understanding signed between Haryana and Rajasthan on the Yamuna Water Project deserves to be welcomed as a model of cooperative federalism. Rather than prolonging litigation or political acrimony, the two states have chosen dialogue, negotiation and........

© Free Press Journal