India’s move to seek modification of the six-decade-old Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) needs to be viewed strictly in the context as spelt out in the missive handed over to Islamabad on this issue. It has categorically attributed it to Pakistan’s constant “intransigence” in implementing this time-tested water-sharing pact by raising repeated, and often pointless, objections to development projects on the Indian side that do not violate the World Bank-brokered treaty. The specific cases in point are the Kishenganga and Ratle hydro-power projects. What has irked India is the initiation by the World Bank, on Pakistan’s insistence, of two sets of dispute-settlement procedures — appointing a neutral expert and a court of arbitration — simultaneously, disregarding the three-level graded grievance redress mechanism envisaged in the treaty. The typical procedure involves bilateral negotiations, appointing a neutral expert, and reference to the court of arbi