FORMER Chairman of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Mr. Kishore Mahbubani has suggested that India should replace the United Kingdom at the UNSC and make the apex body stronger. Currently a Distinguished Fellow of the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore, Mr. Mahbubani has stated at a media event in India that the United Nations (UN) is not weak by accident but weak by design -- which is undesirable for the world body. One of the ways to make the UN stronger is, according to Mr. Mahbubani, to withdraw the United Kingdom from the membership of the UNSC and get India in that slot so that the UN becomes stronger (better and more responsive). Though the suggestion has come from a former UNSC chief and a seasoned diplomat, India may not agree with such an arrangement. For, in India’s view, making the UN stronger should mean expanding the membership of the elite UNSC so that the apex body becomes more inclusive and more representative of the range of world opinion. From India’s point of view, such a suggestion is unseemly, to say the least. It is true that India has been on the forefront of the demand for serious top-level reforms at the United Nations -- with a special focus on the UNSC.

 

It has been pushing its own case for Permanent Membership of the UNSC for long -- and has been earning a few friends in the process supporting the idea. The argument by Mr. Kishore Mahbubani in India’s favour is, possibly, the outcome of all the spade-work India has done in this regard. Yet, there is no likelihood that India would support the idea of removing an existing member of the UNSC -- like England. For, in other words, the idea smacks of one-sidedness that is so detrimental to the concept of a better world. All along, India has never even entertained any such concept. This conduct is in tune with India’s persona in international realpolitik. India needs to be in UNSC because it is the best and most articulate member of what has come to described as ‘Global South’. India needs to be at the UNSC as a permanent member because it has taken proud steps towards asserting its own power in world affairs. This got proved beyond doubt when India pitched successfully for getting the membership of the African Union to G-20 grouping of which it was chairman two years ago. India’s insistence upon the inclusion made all the difference to the world opinion and the powers that be at the G-20 ecosystem.

 

That was not any mean achievement. At the G-20 summit, India also successfully asserted itself to include a proper mention of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in its New Delhi Declaration. The world saw how India was pitching for the right causes and not for narrow goals of its own inclusion in world bodies. All the Indian actions on the world stage in the past ten years point to only one truth -- that India has the strongest case for its own inclusion as Permanent Member of the United Nations Security Council. Those who have observed world affairs closely and impartially now believe that India’s inclusion is only a matter of time -- beyond anybody’s power to resist. If that is the reality on the ground, then there is no need for such a replacement move. For, India has always believed in the principle of reformation and not replacement -- working on a long-term vision for a positive transformation of the world order. For, as India knows fully well that eventually the world will have to agree to India’s global view as the most legitimate way to consider how the world should run itself. There is every reason to believe for India that its claim to a place in UNSC is being recognised from increasing numbers of countries around the world, including the adversarial China.