India has been a leading name and an enthusiastic player since the post-war era when the edifice of global governance was laid and the principle of international peace and harmony was firmly propagated. Withstanding the tumultuous decades of Colonisation and Imperialism India established itself in the International Order of decision-making and policy making early on with its unique stance of peace and non-violence and not conforming with the then emerging superpowers. Surely this is clear in its adamant advocacy of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), India being one of its founding members. With this it carved out its own niche in the scene of political and strategic leadership in the East and at the same time joined hands with various multilateral organisations from the West with the aim of active participation in global decision-making and establishment in the world of diplomacy.
The United Nations had already emerged as the intergovernmental institution responsible for international peace and security and after decades, it holds itself firm on that premise. Therefore, it becomes somewhat the centre for countries from all over the world to use its membership as the token for their compliance with the principles of international peace and harmony through international cooperation. Therefore, its membership is the symbol for strategic coalition-building.
“The founders of the United Nations were very clear about a “security specialist” Council whose pre-eminent purpose was the maintenance of international peace and security.” (India’s Pursuit of United Nations Security Council Reforms- Article by Manish S. Dabade) The machinery that ensures the systematic functioning of this Council rests its foundation on the careful procedural system of election and proceedings which enables the system to come to life in the shape of able and intelligent representatives. This initiates the methodical and rather transparent concatenation of collective decision making that by the end ensures efficient and circumspect policies and actions. Therefore, this membership becomes a privilege and not a right. India is the non-permanent member in the United Nations Security Council and has been elected as a non-permanent member of the Council for 7 times during the years- 1950-1951, 1967-1968, 1972-1973, 1977-1978, 1984-1985, 1991-1992, 2011-2012 and most recently on the 17th of June for the term 2020-2021. This puts India in the position of working closely with the five permanent members and the remaining in collective strategic decision making in various fields- right from human rights, health and diseases to international development and counterterrorism.
Syrian Ambassador to the UN Bashar Ja”fari said, “I am confident that India will play a constructive role during its membership of the Security Council to help maintain the international peace and security away from politicization and interventional agendas.” Therefore, the non-permanent membership that India holds is a result of collective trust of various countries that share the same ethos as India does which encourages the country to spearhead a new and inclusive fashion of deliberation and negotiations.
One of the greater advantages of India’s place in the UNSC, as a non-permanent member is its unification with the permanent members- China, Russia, the United States of America, France and the United Kingdom. India continues to strengthen its bilateral relations with the countries along with being a very important presence on the table where often, polarization of powers is seen. With this process of strengthening in progress India’s lobbying for permanent membership is further carried out. The Indian approach to the UN, in India’s first PM Jawaharlal Nehru’s words, is characterized by “whole-hearted cooperation” through full participation “in its councils to which her geographical position and contribution towards peaceful progress entitle her.” (Murthy 2010)
India has since the beginning of the era of intergovernmental cooperation stood on a strong moral and honest belief system. That may be precisely one of the reasons for the growth in popularity her name gained in the context of Global Governance and Leadership. Gathering straightforward lessons from its subjugation at the hands of the Colonial power and all the subsequent changes it went through internally, it has based its principles of inclusivity in international politics on the basis of morality and beneficence and not economic dominance, resulting in the fellow countries to stand with it throughout.
India has always maintained strong and undivided interest in global governance, which drove its leaders to contribute more to the global order. Very soon it changed its trajectory of economic development and improvement of human skills by almost transforming its traditional outlook to one that was an assimilation of modern technology and education and traditional system of values to ensure a generation of young leaders and diplomats that didn’t only have the knowledge and skill set of handling every strategic and diplomatic situation but also carrying out the deliberations and negotiations with the conviction of doing good for the global order. For many years India has benefitted with the liberal global order where it got the much deserved exposure to the structure of global governance and now it has reached the very polished and impressive stage where India is deliberating on issues like climate change and counterterrorism while dealing with the domestic political and social scenario as well. The United Nation continues to be the unfaltering platform for such a display of honorable intentions and propagation of peace and harmony.
Written by- Akshata Sinha.
Sources-
• (Volume 2, Issue 3) Rising India and Its Global Governance Imperatives
• NDTV.in
• ORF.org
• Wikipedia