A permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council has eluded India despite its relentless efforts as it has not adopted a broader role in settling international issues, a senior official of the world body has said.
"India is not doing enough to become a permanent member of the Security Council. Instead of demanding for it, India should play a more participatory role in world affairs," Vijay Nambiar, chief of staff to the UN secretary general, told PTI in Mumbai.
Acknowledging the country's large contribution of troops for UN peacekeeping efforts, he said: "However, India's role has to go beyond providing peacekeepers.
It has to see a broader role for itself by being actively involved in discussions and settlement of major economic and political concerns, including human rights and environment-related issues."
Nambiar, who was earlier India's permanent representative to the UN, said: "India has to take an active part around the world. It should not be interested only in its own immediate national interests.
It should be willing to work out a larger commitment for serving global interests."
It was not for the UN to have expectations from its members states, he said adding, India has to live up to its own image of being a progessive nation.
"At the Stockholm Conference in 1972, Indira Gandhi had spurred a whole new dimension to deliberations on the environment when she spoke of poverty as the greatest polluter and set the tone for a global challenge of competing ideas and options on the preservation of our planet," Nambiar said.
This competition has survived the changes of time. Equally important, it infused a scientific and technical debate with an economic and political urgency that is no less than the one relevant to human rights, he said.
"We have not seen a similar action on India's part in approaching the climate change debate today," Nambiar said.
Nambiar has been previously special advisor to former UN secretary general Kofi Annan at the rank of under-secretary general and India's permanent representative to UN (May 2002-June 2004).
Earlier, as ambassador of India, he served successively in Pakistan (2000-01), China (1996-2000), Malaysia (1993-96) and Afghanistan (1990-92).
"Having been privileged to be associated with the courage of India's initiatives in bilateral relationships, particularly with China and Pakistan, I would argue for a bolder, less risk-averse approach at the multilateral level as well," he said.
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