Page 273 - Failure to Triumph - Journey of A Student

India which joined the UN in 1945 is the third largest and a regular constant contributor of troops
to United Nations Peace-keeping missions. The Foreign Policy Magazine states that, “India’s
international identity has long been shaped by its role in UN peacekeeping, with more than 100,000
Indian troops having served in UN missions during the past 50 years. Today, India has over 8,500
peacekeepers in the field, more than twice as many as the UN’s five big powers combined. In

supporting India’s bid for a permanent seat on an enlarged Security Council, President Barack Obama
cited “India’s long history as a leading contributor to United Nations peacekeeping mission." India
has been elected seven times to the UN Security Council. Most recently India has been elected to
serve in UNSC from 2011 to 2012 as it had received 187 of the 190 total votes. India is one of the
main contributors to the UN regular budget.

The country currently has the world’s second largest population and is the world’s largest liberal
democracy. It is also the world’s tenth largest economy and third largest in terms of purchasing power
parity. Currently, India maintains the world’s third largest active armed force and is a nuclear weapon

state. India is perhaps the only candidate who’s bid has been openly backed by all the P5 nations,
with China, Russia, United States of America, United Kingdom and France, along with various other
nations endorsing the country’s aspirations. India was elected to the Security Council as a non-
permanent member in 2011, with an overwhelming majority of 98% and only 3 out of the 190
countries voting did not vote for India, Egypt being one of them, though this has been denied by the
ambassador of Egypt to India.

NUCLEAR NON-PROLIFERATION TREATY (NPT) AND INDIA

NPT has come into effect since 1970. All nations of the world have signed the NPT except India,
Pakistan and Israel. North Korea withdrew from the NPT in 2003 and Iran is threatening to opt out of
it.

The treaty divided the world into the groups namely the haves and the have-nots of nuclear
weapons. The haves being USA, Russia, China, UK and France and the have-nots being the rest of the
world. The aim of the treaty was two-fold. First, the nuclear weapon states will move towards
disarmament by destroying their weapons in stages; secondly, the non-nuclear weapon states will not

seek nuclear weapons but will be assisted by nuclear states to get the nuclear energy for peaceful
purposes.

India’s Objection to the Treaty

It is discriminatory as there are no checks on the nuclear weapon states about their progress
towards disarmament whereas there are checks on the non-nuclear weapon states about
their nuclear programme for peaceful purposes. These checks are carried out by the

inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Both neighboring countries on East and West, i.e., China and Pakistan have nuclear