Imagindia thanks Obama for UNSC, cautions world media
New Delhi, November 9, 2010

As President Obama flew out of New Delhi today morning to Indonesia for the next leg of his Asian tour, the American people and the President reaped warm thanks from the people of India for endorsing India’s seat as a permanent member of the UN Security Council. “As all of India, we also were heartened to hear President Obama endorse India as a permanent member of the UNSC in his address to the parliament of India. An idea whose time been due since far too long, the UN will be true to its charter only when India assumes the seat, and yesterday was a historic step in that direction”, said the Imagindia Institute, a leading think tank on the image and geopolitics of India.

However, Imagindia cautioned world media that it must not view this endorsement as a counter to China in power moves by a weakened U.S. Today, with one-fifth of humanity India is a logical claimant and deserves this seat on the strength of its own independent and sole logic sans any geopolitical readings. Ascribing any other motive to India’s ascendancy may make for juicy geopolitics and estimations of power-calculus, but does an immense disservice to the rise and reality of India. “We are thankful to President Obama for realizing and articulating this reality in front of over one billion people”, it said.

Imagindia also pointed out that the U.S. and Soviet Union had together offered a permanent seat to India in 1955. India’s then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in a gracious gesture had declined and said the seat should be given to China, which then assumed the spot. “In 1955 India created and paved the way for China to be a member of the UNSC. India and China are civilizations with a long memory. We are sure the Chinese people and leaderships remember this gesture with gratitude. The rise of India and China is independent of each other, with a shared sense of global development and responsibility, as demonstrated by Nehru in 1955”, said Robinder Sachdev, president of Imagindia.

Meanwhile, on the domestic front, Imagindia reminded the leaderships and people of India that the country cannot afford to relent its guard, and must ensure that the seat comes with a veto – or as a co-equal to any other permanent member. “It is time to end the apartheid at the UN. All efforts must now be made to immediately reform the UN. We would like to see the new UNSC in place by 2012”, added Imagindia.