Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Mar 18: The external affairs minister S Jaishankar has called for a “reformed, strong, and fair” United Nations which would be competent to apply global norms and rules uniformly on all the countries.
Pointing out that northern parts of Kashmir was “longest-standing illegal occupation of a territory globally after World War II suffered by India,” Mr Jaishankar did not mince words as he showed how the United Nations had faltered in its understanding and approach to the Kashmir issue.
The injustice done by the West at the UN over Kashmir was highlighted at The Raisina Dialogue – a global multilateral conference held in New Delhi each year. The entire state of Jammu and Kashmir, which includes Gilgit and Baltistan, called Northern Areas before 1970, had acceded to India in 1947. Pakistan, in a unilateral act of aggression, invaded Jammu and Kashmir and has been illegally occupying parts of the Indian Union since then.
Speaking about Kashmir at the forum on Tuesday, Mr Jaishankar highlighted the selective approach and application of global rules on issues pertaining to sovereignty and territorial integrity. As he raised concerns over historical injustices in dealing with certain issues, he batted for establishing a “reformed, strong, and fair” United Nations. Explaining how the UN had greatly erred in not condemning Pakistan’s illegal occupation of parts of Jammu and Kashmir, Mr Jaishankar said the “attacker” (Pakistan) and the “victim” (India) were clubbed under the same bracket.
“We all speak of sovereignty and territorial integrity. All of us agree that it is a vital principle. It’s the bedrock of global rules. After the Second World War, the longest standing illegal, I would say presence, occupation of a territory by another country pertains to India, what we saw in Kashmir,” he said.
“Now we went to the UN, but what was an invasion was made into a dispute. So the attacker and the victim were put on par. Who were the culpable parties? UK, Canada, Belgium, Australia, USA. So, pardon me, but I have some question marks on that one,” the minister said. Backing a reformed and strong UN, Mr Jaishankar said global norms and rules must be applied uniformly. “We need a strong UN but a strong UN requires a fair UN,” he asserted.
“A strong global order must have some basic consistency of standards,” he said, calling for a new and reformed world order. “Look, I think we do need an international order just like we need a domestic order. Just like you need a society in a country, you need an international version of that and its not just big countries who will benefit if there is no order. I would argue that any country which would take risk, which would have an extreme positions, which would test the system will actually use the disorder to its advantage. I mean we have seen in our own neighbourhood. You don’t have to a big country to be a risky country. I have smaller neighbours who have done a pretty good job. So, first of all, we should all understand the importance of an order.”
Citing another example without naming Pakistan and how the West has been selective in its outlook, Mr Jaishankar said “We (India) have military rule to our east – in Myanmar. They are no-no. But we have them even more to the west. You know where? They seem to be okay (to the West). I think it’s important to audit the working of the world for the last eight decades and be honest about it and to understand today that the balances, the share holdings in the world have changed. We need a different conversation. We need frankly in that sense a different order.”
