Essay, Paragraph or Speech on “India and UNSC Seat” Complete Essay, Speech for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

India and UNSC Seat

New Delhi’s unyielding intent to join the United Nations’ Security Council s a permanent member was evident during recent visit of its upper layer politicians to various countries. Especially, while addressing the Indian Ocean island state’s national assembly PM Manmohan Singh appreciated the support extended by Port Louis for India’s candidature to the coveted big boys’ club. But what mattered was his conviction of India’s determination and capacity to assume the onerous responsibilities of a permanent member of the expanded Council. The PM also asserted that that India’s membership would enhance the effectiveness, credibility and legitimacy of the UNSC.

The event will turn out to be a momentous watershed in the 60-year history of the world body if it is able to push through the proposal of the candidature of India along with Brazil, Germany, Japan and possibly one of the major representative nations from the continent of Africa as new permanent members of the expanded UNSC with veto rights. Presently the US, Russia, China, UK and France are the five permanent members.

New Delhi’s Efforts and UNSC

New Delhi’s patient perseverance seems to be paying dividends. The G4 countries — India, Brazil, Japan and Germany have teamed up to support each other’s bid for permanent seats. They plan to seek a vote in the assembly on a resolution calling for UNSC’s expansion. Many nations now fully subscribe to the fact that India, a country of 1.2 billion, not to be represented on the Security Council is something unusual. New Delhi hence has a solid reason to be optimistic in its decade long endeavour as presently there appears to increasing international support for its entry into the portals of the UN’s exclusive decision making club for maintaining world peace. However, India must reject the proposal being mooted in some quarters that if the country is at all permitted to enter the portals of the Council, it should be sans veto power.

The Security Council is given under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, a virtual monopoly over the use of force to defeat aggression. States, alone or collectively with their allies, are entitled to use force only in self defence as a temporary measure until Security Council starts to take effective measures. The UNSC’s forces are supposed to be provided by individual member states by agreements made under Article 43 of the Charter. Incidentally India has all these crucial post World War II years been a major source for the troops for peacekeeping roles in the trouble spots all around the world.

A UN reforms panel has been at work for a couple of years to suggest ways and means of adding more permanent members to the Security Council in addition to the existing five nations. The present Council formed consequent to San Francisco deliberations of 1945 by the founder nations to establish the worthy successor to the defunct League of Nations has become totally irrelevant in the present day Unipolar world where the US power-play reigns supreme.

The UN General Assembly would require a two-thirds majority vote of the assembly members to restructure the UNSC. The reform process would be considered a success only if an enlarged Council enhanced the representation of the developing countries form Asia, Africa and Latin America. Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) members would like expansion based on equitable geographical representation. As far as Asia is concerned, after China and Japan there is no other country but India which can justifiably represent the world’s largest and most populous continent.

There is no denying that the present day international peace and security calls for a more representative Security Council reflective of existing realities. In this context, the international community must take cognizance of the fact that a large geographical entity of a billion people with 5000 years of long history, civilization and cultural heritage needs to be given a justifiable place in the world body. The resurgent modern India, with its deep rooted democratic system and growing economic potential has the right credentials to champion causes of the developing nations.

India is strucking the right chord when PM Manmohan Singh declared that the UN is the critical link in cooperative multilateral efforts to manage the challenges of global interdependence. The Security Council is an important UN organ whose primary responsibility is the maintenance of international peace, stability and security in the world. The UN charter states that the Council may take military action against the offending nations by air, sea and land forces. India’s size, its role in the world, its economy, its contribution to UN peacekeeping, all these make it a very serious and strong contender for permanent membership.

The Other Side: Why India Doesn’t Deserve Seat in UNSC

India’s UNSC bid creates noise every time there is a UN session in progress. But sadly, it creates noise only in India. That’s the irony of this bid which needs 2/3rd of 192 countries around the world to vote for India. Nobody is talking about it and nobody cares. It is important to discuss whether India really deserves that seat.

Agreed that 1 out of every 6 people in this world live in India, agreed that India is the largest democracy, agreed that India is a major contributor to UN peace keeping missions, but is that enough to lay claim on permanent membership to UNSC? Just because you have been a loyal employee in a company and have worked honestly and diligently for it doesn’t give you the right to lay claim to the Board of Directors. You should be in a strategic role to do that. You should have helped the company at a higher level to grow its business, to see through some crises situations, or to enter new relationships. You should have done something that was impactful to the whole company.

 Also getting a UNSC membership is not just about national pride. Politicians, especially in the developing countries, have a habit of painting a Utopian picture for the general public, taking them on fantasy rides, one after the other. And low literacy levels and low awareness levels in these countries do not help the situation.

India has to prove its case to become a permanent member with veto power of such an influential body. What is India’s approach towards other countries, what drives India’s global relationships, what are India’s ideologies, what principles does India stand for, these are important questions that need to be answered. Nobody knows what is India’s stand on important issues such as the situation in Darfur, the Palestine-Israel conflict, the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan, and many other such issues. Indian government didn’t consider them important enough to be commented upon. There are always more pressing domestic issues. And it hasn’t been heard that India’s stand being discussed or covered by media for any major international conflict.

India fails to impress even in its neighborhood. It has remained silent on the Myanmar issue. It didn’t take a lead in helping to solve important crises such as the Maoist rebellion in Nepal and LTTE issue in Sri Lanka. Even India’s neighbors don’t consider it their Big Brother, forget about other countries around the world. India is unpredictable. Change in ruling party changes the way India engages with other countries. Who would have predicted that politics within the ruling party would derail the historic nuclear pact with US and in the process, deny energy-hungry India access to crucial nuclear technology, and send mixed signals to IAEA, France and Australia who were ready to help India build the nuclear plants.

India has inward looking policies that put national interest before anything else. Policies related to other nations are driven by domestic policy makers who don’t have an international outlook. One of the reasons why India developed diplomatic relationships with some countries was to serve the interests of Indians in those countries and these relationships haven’t evolved beyond fulfilling the requirements of the local Indians. India is just a big country that has existed in isolation for decades and has recently shown some economic growth and integration with the global society. But largely, India is still not influencing any country’s foreign policy.

All is not lost though. Consistency is the mantra India will have to adopt to become a permanent member of UNSC. India has to show consistent behavior in all the things that it does that involves another nation. It has to show consistency in its stand towards foreign conflicts, in its economic policies that impact other countries and in its internal policies that are related to human rights, child labor etc. That is when nobody can oppose India’s bid and India can proudly say that it deserves a permanent seat on UNSC!