Skip to main content

Will India’s foreign policy help genuine claim for permanent seat in UN Security Council?

By Prof Sudhanshu Tripathi* 

The foreign policy of India is a distinguished policy statement regarding independent country’s aspirations to play its tryst with destiny. The core or the focal theme of this policy converges over strategic autonomy for the country that it passionately continues to accomplish under all circumstances. But this does not mean that India would ever break the cardinal features of its rich ancient tradition and so-evolved cultural heritage characterized by eternal and universal moral values viz. peace, love, truth, compassion, justice, freedom and many more, until and unless an unfortunate situation so emerges and that too in the context of protecting core national interests like territorial integrity and state sovereignty apart from peace and security of its citizens and their overall well-being and socio-economic welfare including political stability.
Why India always aspires for independent decisions and independence of actions as regards operation of its foreign policy is indeed the fact worth considering here? Because India firmly believes and upholds the ideal of vasudhaiv kutumbakam ie the whole world is one family and continues to carry the same spirit in all over the world. That was clearly visible during Covid-19 global crisis when the country passionately dispatched covid-19 vaccines and team of doctors and medical experts in all over the world to help the needy and suffering population.
Thus India always acts with its full might in the welfare and common interest of the humanity at large whenever and wherever a need so arises. At the same time India’s foreign policy has always dealt with or now boldly deals with all emergent situations whether it be the prolonged Sino-Indian standoff over the international border between them in the recent past or cross-border terror exported by Pakistan into India or surgical strikes on terror outfits housed inside PoK or successfully holding the G-20 summit or meaningful role in ASEAN summit in Jakarta or issuing stern warning to Canada during September 2023 to control the Khalistani terrorists therein active against India, thereby continue reinventing the country’s strategic autonomy marked by the non-alignment and reinvigorating India’s past glory and traditional cultural heritage reflecting its proactive vision incorporating tradition with modernity throughout the world.

Evolving world order

Unfortunately, the evolving world order since the end of the first World War, based upon the then American President Wilson’s idealism, got a knee-jerk turn with the end of the second-World War in 1945. And that witnessed stiff and sharp bipolarity between the two prominent allied powers viz. the US and the then USSR (Soviet Union) due to total ideological division between the US’ led capitalist countries of the western Europe and the communist’s world consisting eastern European states led by the then USSR. 
Thus the so-evolved bipolarity led to emerge fierce Cold War between the two blocs led by the super-powers and their bloc followers and their several hostile acts of animosities leading to mounting of tensions and consequent arms race and actions and counter-reactions between the two blocs. That continued for many decades and with the closing years of eighties and the onset of nineties in the previous century marked the end of bilateral world order passing through the cold war and afterwards détente between them in the early seventies and onwards led to arrival of the post-cold war world order characterized by Unipolar world with the US being predominant and hegemonic power controlling the entire international relations and world affairs including controlling ideas of almost the entire humanity through its powerful satellite controlled popular media and political ideas and ideals including the so-governed global economy.

Post-Cold War world

The post-Cold War world has unfortunately witnessed various upheavals in as diverse fields as economic, social, cultural, and political, while passing through the prevailing issues of grave concerns. These are concerned with issues like economic recession, globalization and liberalization, environmental degradation and pollution, organized violence and crime syndicates, explosion of internal conflicts in many parts of the world and macabre terror and religious fundamentalism and consequent massive displacement of human population both internally as well as externally, besides mounting fear of nuclear proliferation and nuclear holocaust, and many such other challenges of serious nature. As obvious these issues have altogether cast a deep blow on the global community by putting immense impact in all over the world wherein different nations make contact among themselves through the instrument of their respective foreign policies against the backdrop of eastward shifting global geopolitics. Indeed the changing global political configuration is increasingly characterized by the moving global centre of power from the west to the east, according to most political observers.
In this scenario, India’s proactive vision for the country as well as the whole world is indeed credible so as to the address the long emergent crisis viz. Russia-Ukraine war, the emerging Moscow-Teheran-Beijing axis against the US led NATO powers in the aforesaid war, the mounting tensions in the Indo-Pacific region particularly around South China Sea, Chinese threat to Taiwan, Russia-North Korea-China triangular alliance against South Korea and Japan, the now resurfaced Nogorno-Karabakh crisis, civil unrest in Yemen and any more are indeed the potential threats that may create massive holocaust to contain and convincingly disturb the so obtained peaceful-progressive and liberal-progressive democratic order in the world.
Against this background, India with bold assertions in the recent ASEAN summit in Jakarta in the interest of smaller regional partners followed by new evolved self-confidence due to its successful G-20 presidency creating milestones has provided enough leverage to New Delhi to play meaningful and decisive role in international relations and world affairs given the constructive support to India by most of the prominent global and major powers led by the US except China and Pakistan etc.. Such conducive environment for New Delhi will evidently push-extend its genuine claim for permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council. That will be a due reward for the current foreign policy of the country engaged in procuring it vital national interests amidst promoting larger interests of the international community and global humanity in the true interest of the above-mentioned vasudhaiv kutumbakam. This may happen as nothing is beyond human endeavour.
---
*Dept of Political Science, MDPG College, Pratapagarh (UP)

Comments

TRENDING

Manufacturing, services: India's low-skill, middle-skill labour remains underemployed

By Francis Kuriakose* The Indian economy was in a state of deceleration well before Covid-19 made its impact in early 2020. This can be inferred from the declining trends of four important macroeconomic variables that indicate the health of the economy in the last quarter of 2019.

The soundtrack of resistance: How 'Sada Sada Ya Nabi' is fueling the Iran war

​ By Syed Ali Mujtaba*  ​The Persian track “ Sada Sada Ya Nabi ye ” by Hossein Sotoodeh has taken the world by storm. This viral media has cut across linguistic barriers to achieve cult status, reaching over 10 million views. The electrifying music and passionate rendition by the Iranian singer have resonated across the globe, particularly as the high-intensity military conflict involving Iran entered its second month in March 2026.

Incarceration of Prof Saibaba 'revives' the question: What is crime, who is criminal?

By Kunal Pant* In 2016, a Supreme Court Judge asked the state of Maharashtra, “Do you want to extract a pound of flesh?” The statement was directed against the state for contesting the bail plea of Delhi University Professor GN Saibaba. Saibaba was arrested in 2014, a justification for which was to prevent him from committing what the police called “anti-national activities.”

Food security? Gujarat govt puts more than 5 lakh ration cards in the 'silent' category

By Pankti Jog* A new statistical report uploaded by the Gujarat government on the national food security portal shows that ensuring food security for the marginalized community is still not a priority of the state. The statistical report, uploaded on December 24, highlights many weaknesses in implementing the National Food Security Act (NFSA) in state.

Why Indo-Pak relations have been on 'knife’s edge' , hostilities may remain for long

By Utkarsh Bajpai*  The past few decades have seen strides being made in all aspects of life – from sticks and stones to weaponry. The extreme case of this phenomenon has been nuclear weapons. The menace caused by nuclear weapons in the past is unforgettable. Images of Hiroshima and Nagasaki from 1945 come to mind, after the United States dropped two atomic bombs on the cities.

Lata Mangeshkar, a Dalit from Devdasi family, 'refused to sing a song' about Ambedkar

By Pramod Ranjan*  An artist is known and respected for her art. But she is equally, or even more so known and respected for her social concerns. An artist's social concerns or in other words, her worldview, give a direction and purpose to her art. History remembers only such artists whose social concerns are deep, reasoned and of durable importance. Lata Mangeshkar (28 September 1929 – 6 February 2022) was a celebrated playback singer of the Hindi film industry. She was the uncrowned queen of Indian music for over seven decades. Her popularity was unmatched. Her songs were heard and admired not only in India but also in Pakistan, Bangladesh and many other South Asian countries. In this article, we will focus on her social concerns. Lata lived for 92 long years. Music ran in her blood. Her father also belonged to the world of music. Her two sisters, Asha Bhonsle and Usha Mangeshkar, are well-known singers. Lata might have been born in Indore but the blood of a famous Devdasi family...

'Batteries now cheap enough for solar to meet India's 90% demand': Expert quotes Ember study

By A Representative   Shankar Sharma, Power & Climate Policy Analyst, has urged India’s top policymakers to reconsider the financial and ecological implications of the country’s energy transition strategy in light of recent global developments. In a letter dated April 10, 2026, addressed to the Union Ministers of Finance, Power, New & Renewable Energy, Environment, Forest & Climate Change, and the Vice Chair of NITI Aayog, with a copy to the Prime Minister, Sharma highlighted concerns over India’s ambitious plans for coal gasification and the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR).

Beyond Lata: How Asha Bhosle redefined the female voice with her underrated versatility

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat*  The news of iconic Asha Bhosle’s ‘untimely’ demise has shocked music lovers across the country. Asha Tai was 92 years young. Normally, people celebrate a passing at this age, but Asha Bhosle—much like another legend, Dev Anand—never made us feel she was growing old. She was perhaps the most versatile artist in Bombay cinema. Hailing from a family devoted to music, Asha’s journey to success and fame was not easy. Her elder sister, Lata Mangeshkar, had already become the voice of women in cinema, and most contemporaries like Shamshad Begum, Suraiya, and Noor Jehan had slowly faded into oblivion. Frankly, there was no second or third to Lata Mangeshkar; she became the first—and perhaps the only—choice for music directors and all those who mattered in filmmaking. Asha started her musical journey at age 10 with a Marathi film, but her first break in Hindustani cinema came with the film "Chunariya" (1948). Though she was not the first choice of ...

50 years of the Port of Spain miracle: The chase that redefined Indian cricket

By Harsh Thakor*  Fifty years ago, India turned the tide to rewrite cricket history, rising from the depths of despair to a moment of enduring glory. Queen’s Park Oval in Port of Spain, Trinidad, is celebrated among cricket grounds for its poetic beauty. For India, it became a theatre of historic triumph. In 1976, it showed the cricketing world what it was made of.