Indian aspiration for permanent UNSC seat
Mamoona Ali Kazmi
Recently, India has been selected as non-veto holding member of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for a two-year term. India got 187 votes in the 192 member UN general Assembly. She is considering her success as non-permanent member of UNSC a precursor to gain a permanent seat at the UN. India believes that Security Council cannot be properly representative unless India is not included in it. India argues that in size and military might it is at par with the permanent members of the Security Council. However, Indias arguments for getting a permanent seat in Security Council are not strong. There are various aspects, which are to be analyzed in order to judge whether India deserves a permanent seat in Security Council or not.
Firstly, a stable and strong economy is necessary for a country to become a permanent member of Security Council. As far as India is concerned, its economy is weak and fragile as compared to the permanent members of the Security Council. Nearly 50 percent of the worlds hungry live in India. Around 35 percent of Indias population, which is 350 million, is considered food-insecure, consuming less than 80 percent of minimum energy requirements. Nutritional and health indicators are extremely low. Nearly nine out of ten pregnant women aged between 15 and 49 years suffer malnutrition and anemia. More than half of the children under five are moderately or severely malnourished, or suffer from stunting. Close to two million children below the age of five die in India every year. Despite significant economic progress, one quarter of Indias population earn less than the government-specified poverty threshold of 12 rupees per day.
The number of people living in slums in India has doubled in the past two decades. According to Indian Government, the population of people living in slums has exceeded the entire population of Britain. Child labour is on peak in India. Because of unjust terms of work, more than 55 million children in India work as slaves. Most of the Indians are deprived of basic necessities of life such as drinking water, health care etc. The WHO, UNAIDS and Indian Council of Medical Research assert that there are 5.1 million AID victims in India. Due to this deadly disease more than a million Indian children under the age of 15 have lost one or both parents to Aids. Un-employment rate is much high in India. The educated youth when unable to get jobs engage in subversive activities. Due to unemployment and poverty many minor girls under the age of 13 are engaged in forced prostitution. In its annual report, Transparency International has ranked India 84th in a list of 180 surveyed for level of corruption. So, a country with such a shaky economic position, poor social indicators and high level of corruption does not deserve to be a permanent member of Security Council.
Just like poverty and hunger figures for India, the situation of democracy, secularism, peace and stability is also very bleak. According to the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) in Washington the death toll from terrorist attacks in India between January 2004 and March 2007 was 3,674 second only to that in Iraq. In terms of the challenges to the writ of the State, India is host to some of the fierce conflicts in the world. Since 1989 more than 80,000 people have died in insurgencies in Jammu and Kashmir and the northeastern states. About 40 percent of Indian territory is outside the control of Indian authority. Naxal insurgency has become the biggest security threat to India, yet there is no denial to the fact that India itself is the creator of this monster. There is a direct correlation between extremism and poverty, in practice, but the Indian government is treating the Naxal problem as a law and order problem. India, which is propagating itself to be a true democracy with rich civil rights, is ignoring that its 200 million Dalits or untouchables still suffer from deplorable caste discrimination and are deprived of even basic rights such as right to life and security. According to Human Rights Education Movement of India, every hour, two Dalits are assaulted, three Dalit Women raped, two Dalits murdered and two Dalit houses burned, yet only one percent of those who commit crimes against Dalits are ever convicted.
The failure of secularism in India is apparent from its treatment to the minorities. India is intolerable of religious minorities. Indian government has tried several times to purge Sikh identity and merge them into Hinduism. For this purpose it used all techniques including killing their young generation, destroying their history and distorting their culture. Apart from Sikhs, Muslims always remained the victim of Hindu hatred. This hatred led the extremist Hindus to inflict harm to Muslims belongings. On 6 December 1992, Hindu extremists demolished 16th century old Babri mosque. More than 2000 people were killed in the ensuing riots following the demolition. Similarly, in 2002 something as horrendous as the Gujarat riots, killing more than 2,500 Muslims, having no parallel in Indias modern history occurred. Christian minorities are also not safe in India. Hindu groups are running an anti Christian campaign for several years. Since August 2008, supporters of the Hindu militant groups Vishwa Hinud Parishad and Bajrang Dal in Orissa have attacked Christians, many of them tribal minorities or Dalits. According to the Roman Catholic Church in India, 300 Christian villages have been destroyed in Orissa, 4,400 houses burnt, 50,000 people made homeless and 59 Christians killed and 18,000 injured.
Thirdly, India has a terrible record of complying with the UN resolutions. India, which itself took the Kashmir issue to the United Nations is not complying with any of the UN resolutions regarding Kashmir issue. On 21st April 1948 Security Council passed a resolution, which called for a fair and free plebiscite in Kashmir. Indian Prime Minister Nehru promised to hold a plebiscite in Kashmir, according to the wishes of Kashmiri people, at more than one place. The promise however, was never fulfilled. India thwarted all attempts by the UN to hold a plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir. It forcibly occupied Kashmir by her security forces that remained engaged in committing human rights violation for more than 63 years. It is amazing that a country which has been breaching the UN resolutions seeks a permanent seat in the Security Council.
Fourthly, the main reason for Indias endeavor to become a permanent member of the Security Council is to promote its hegemonic desires and her sphere of influence. India is continuously interfering into the internal affirms of neighbouring countries such as Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. She is supporting the Chakma refugees of Bangladesh in order to create unrest in that country. Her expansionist design intends to merge the whole Bangladesh into Indian Territory. For this purpose India is supporting many separatist groups and fifth columnists for covert and overt operations. India also provided moral and material support to LTTE, a dissident group of Sri Lanka, in order to destabilize it and to realize the dream of Nehru who in a conference in 1945 declared, Ceylon is culturally, socially and linguistically as much a part of India as any province presumably as an autonomous unit of Indian Federation. India also harbored the Nepali Maoists by providing them shelter, training and arms. Similarly, India is encouraging militancy and separatism in Baluchistan, and Khyber Puktoonkhwa. Such interference is strictly prohibited under UN charter. So, in this respect India is violating the UN charter and International Law. A country with expansionist designs does not have a right to become a permanent member of Security Council since it is a security hazard to the neighbouring countries. The above mentioned facts about India speak volumes of feeble and unjust economic, social and human rights record. She is a gross violator of UN charter and International law. A country with most of the population living below the poverty line and spending lavishly on arms and ammunition does not qualify even to be a non-permanent member of the Security Council not to speak of permanent membership.
Indian aspiration for permanent UNSC seat
