India Urges UN Reform, Rejects Legacy of Victors' Order

India has told the United Nations that the results of a war fought 80 years ago should not dictate the organisation's direction today. New Delhi says the UN's credibility is declining because its Security Council still fails to present an accurate and balanced view of the world.

Addressing the General Assembly on Thursday, Permanent Representative P. Harish declared that no conflict, especially one that took place more than eight decades ago, can settle the state of today's world.

He argued that the authority derived from wartime victory cannot compensate for the lack of legitimacy in a Security Council that does not represent the wider membership.

Permanent Security Council seats, Harish said, remain with countries considered victors of the Second World War. He underlined India's substantial role in that war.

"Around 2.5 million Indians served in the war, and close to 90,000 Indian soldiers died," he said. He also pointed to the Bengal famine, which occurred during the war as a result of colonial policies and killed more than 4 million people.

According to Harish, a number of people wish to disregard this reality or attempt to bury it.

"An institution created by victors, for victors and shaped by their thinking, naturally did not account for the concerns of the victims," he said.

He noted that the special rights given to victorious countries under the 1945 UN Charter allow some states to halt change. However, he insisted these rights must not be employed to keep the Intergovernmental Negotiations (IGN) on Security Council reform suspended indefinitely. Talks, he said, must have a draft text, a timeframe and a defined direction.

Harish accused a small bloc led by Italy, which includes Pakistan, of blocking the adoption of a draft text needed for negotiations through procedural means. The bloc, known as Uniting for Consensus (UfC), maintains that consensus among all countries must exist before any draft is accepted.

Harish responded that this approach was puzzling. "In any multilateral process, a draft text is needed to start negotiations, not after they finish," he said.

He concluded that Security Council reform talks, like other UN processes, should proceed on the basis of a written draft.