Time to call for more democratic, inclusive global institution – Firstpost

India is today not only the world’s most populous country, but also the largest democracy, the world’s most religiously diverse country, and the fourth most linguistically varied as well. Since its foundation, India has been among the world’s most globally consequential nations. For decades, India frustrated American policymakers with New Delhi’s stewardship of the Non-Aligned Movement—what New Delhi saw as neutrality, Washington often viewed as hostility.

India has long resented the condescension of many other major states. The United Kingdom may no longer be India’s colonial master, but successive generations of British statesmen and diplomats have condescended to it nonetheless. American officials blame India’s Cold War-era non-alignment for past strains but conveniently forget National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger’s personal and policy betrayals. Nor is the West alone in its betrayal.

In 1962, China, taking advantage of US and Soviet distraction at the Cuban Missile Crisis, seized a chunk of Indian territory, roughly the size of Switzerland. The United Nations later rewarded the aggressors by transferring the Republic of China’s UN Security Council seat to the People’s Republic of China. More recently, Canada has disgraced itself with its racist approach to India after New Delhi had the temerity to suggest sheltering terrorists was wrong, even if their victims were primarily Hindu.

Through it all, India has supported the United Nations. It joined the body as an original member even prior to its independence and for decades acquiesced to inequalities in its structure. It has served as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council eight times, behind Japan and Brazil and, not by coincidence, equal to Pakistan.

Mohan Kumar, a professor of diplomatic practice at the Jindal School of International Affairs in Sonipat and a former Indian ambassador to France, is today among India’s top diplomatic thinkers. Last week, at the Usanas Foundation’s Maharana Pratap Annual Geopolitics Dialogue in Jaipur, he gave eloquent remarks about the need for India, the United States, Israel, Germany, and other democracies as well as moderate states like the United Arab Emirates to cooperate diplomatically and act toward common goals. Such cooperation could affect change far more than the United Nations, especially under the current system.

Such a solution is long overdue, but India should go further. It has now been more than 30 years since Indian officials first demanded inclusion as a permanent member of the UN Security Council. Over subsequent years, the United States, United Kingdom, France, and Russia have endorsed India’s ambition. The African Union, Australia, Brazil, Germany, Japan, and dozens of other countries have also lent their name at one time or another to India’s elevation. All of this has been for naught. The United Nations can speak about reform, and individual Security Council members can even say they support it, but the reality is no different than so many other UN actions—empty virtue signalling absent supporting substance.

India should stop humiliating itself by giving credence to the insincerity of countries whose jealousy or self-interest will never allow India’s rise. Meanwhile, India should recognise its growing indispensability to the United Nations.

However, India is not the only country that the United Nations victimises. The UN’s bias against Israel is legendary and has hit a fever pitch under current Secretary General Antonio Guterres, whose personal animus borders on antisemitism.

Now as the United Nations’ flaws become undeniable, India can be the spark that will enable a global institution to be formed, which will be more suited to the 21st century than honouring the legacy of colonialism. By being present at the dawn of a new outlook, India can ensure its interests, its vision, and help set the standards. It can shape a system in which terror sponsors like Pakistan and Turkey cannot hijack international organisations. While the United Nations does much good, the reformed institution can replicate the function and dispense with the fat.

Is the strategy risky? Yes. But there is only one certainty: India will wait another 30 years before the UN takes its Security Council aspirations seriously. Great powers and civilisational states should not so readily enable their own humiliation.

Michael Rubin is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and director of policy analysis at the Middle East Forum. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.