India bats for UNSC seat, warns against selective approach to terror

In a biting critique of the undemocratic functioning of the UN Security Council, India has accused permanent members of the UNSC of picking and choosing the UN principles to suit their own national interests and of being selective in dealing with terrorism.

“It is ironical that calls for democracy and the rule of law are being made in a Council that itself embodies the undemocratic stranglehold of the privileges of a few, forged by a wartime alliance that no longer exists,” India’s Ambassador to the UN Ashoke Kumar Mukerji said in New York on February 23.

Pitching for a permanent seat in the UNSC, the Indian envoy underlined India’s credentials of being the world’s largest democratic country with a robust economy. India has been the single-largest contributor of troops to the UN peacekeeping operations. Currently, 8,145 Indian troops, police and experts are serving in UN operations. Barring China, all permanent members of the UNSC – United States, Britain, France and Russia and China – have backed India’s claim to be a permanent member of the UNSC.

“The logic of democracy and the anguished faces of human suffering across the world call for urgent action to reform the Council. We must do so this year if we are to learn the right lessons from history,” Mukerji said in his remarks to an open meeting of the UN Security Council on Maintenance of International Peace and Security.

“The Council’s decisions on issues not directly linked with maintaining international peace and security cannot encroach upon the jurisdiction of the General Assembly, where all of us are equally represented,” India’s PR added.

Mr Mukerji accused the UN Council of failing to comply with its unanimous resolution passed after the 9/11 attacks in 2001, which obliges all nations to act against terrorism.

Referring to the critical situations in Africa, West Asia and Europe,” Mr Mukerji said they are “vivid illustrations of the Council’s inability or disinclination” to use the UN for peaceful resolution of international disputes.

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