How long India would be kept out of UN: Modi

INDIAN Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday strongly pressed for reforms in the United Nations and asked how long India would be ‘kept out of the decision-making structures’ of the global body, even as he raised questions on UN’s ‘effective response’ in combating the Covid-19 pandemic that has ravaged the world.

The prime minister’s strong push for reforms in the process and responses of the UN, and the much-delayed expansion of the powerful Security Council came as India will begin its two-year term as an elected non-permanent member of the 15-member Council from January 1 next year.

‘For how long will India be kept out of the decision-making structures of the United Nations? How long would a country have to wait particularly when the transformational changes happening in that country affect a large part of the world?’ Modi asked in his pre-recorded video statement in Hindi to the landmark General Debate of the 75th session of the UN General Assembly.

Asserting that as the world’s largest democracy, India will bring years of rich experience for the benefit of the whole world, Modi said while the faith and respect that the UN enjoys among the 1.3 billion people in India is ‘unparalleled’, it is also true that the people of India have been waiting for a long time for the process for the reforms of the world body to get completed.

‘Today, people of India are concerned whether this reform-process will ever reach its logical conclusion,’ he said, adding that every Indian today, while seeing the contribution of India in the world organisation, aspires for India’s expanded role in the United Nations.

During his address, Modi also underscored the disconnet between the UN and contemporary global realities, saying the world of today is a completely different era from the world of 1945 when the global situation, sources-resources, problems-solutions were all quite different, and raised questions on the response of the UN in combating the Covid-19 pandemic.