Gujral urges NRIs to lobby for a permanent seat in the Security Council

Prime Minister I K Gujral has urged non-resident Indians to lobby for India's candidature for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council. The Security Council is the policy-making body of the 185-member United Nations.

Speaking at a reception hosted in his honour by the International Punjabi Society in New York, he said the United States was a country of lobbyists and India's success would depend, to a good measure, on the lobbying efforts on its behalf.

The prime minister, who arrived here on Saturday night, to attend the UN General Assembly session, is expected to discuss the subject with leaders of other countries during his stay.

India has already staked its claim for a permanent seat on the basis of its population, size of the economy and contribution to the UN system in the past five decades.

Brazil and Nigeria are the other two aspirants for a permanent seat. Though India has staked its claim, it is fully aware of the impediments. The existing five permanent members -- USA, Russia, China, Britain and France -- and their supporters are not very enthusiastic about changing the status quo and losing their primacy in the world body.

Indications are that UN members would informally discuss the package assembled by outgoing General Assembly president Razali Ismail of Malaysia, envisaging an addition of nine members -- five permanent and four non-permanent members to the 15-member council.

The package seeks to accommodate Japan and Germany in the new permanent berths on the basis of their economic strength, while the remaining three could be shared by Asia, Africa and Latin America.

The proposal has the broad support of the United States, but countries like India insist on evolving a criterion for deciding the claims, instead of merely going by geographical considerations.

India would like the reform process to make the UN more representative and equitable. Also to strengthen the ability of the organisation to play its developmental role, and become better equipped to respond to the needs of the developing countries.

The current session of the General Assembly, which began last week, will discuss UN reforms, expansion of the 15-member Security Council and related issues as part of its agenda.

In his speech to the NRIs, the prime minister also urged them to participate in the nation-building process. He referred to the role of the non- resident Chinese in the development of their mother country. He said that as much as 80 per cent of foreign investment in China was by the Chinese living abroad.

He said Indians could make their contribution by helping in the development of the regions they came from, and also by establishing chairs in the US universities on Indian studies.

Gujral said India had succeeded in maintaining its integrity in the fifty years of its Independence, and would now build upon it by attending to the needs of the sections which had not benefited from the process of development.