Mr Swapan Dasgupta does not suggest an alternative. Also perhaps nation states in their current form including India have become exclusive to the marginalised and dispossesed. Witness how every tax reform measure such as VAT / Securities Transaction Tax / Service Tax for truckers / Interest rates for NRI's has been withdrawn due to lobbies and pressure groups. But the lowest of the society continue to pay tax on as low a sum as Rs 10,000 per month.
They also pay a host of indirect taxes. Forget the UN even the nation belongs to a few interest groups and we know who they are .
US have taken for granted that UN is their second Capitol Hill for world affairs. As long as this institution is based in New York, most decisions passed will always go against developing nations. Member countries should take a vote to relocate UN to a netural and geographically position in a country between east and west. UN building is completly bugged, and Diplomats are trapped or coerced to favour US and their allies. The Iraq situation have shown the world how impotent this institution is.
If you are expecting comments from the readers, you also has the responsibility of publishing it in time. I hope the messages which are not degrading and indecent must be published as soon as your editorial board views it. I find it unacceptable to withhold comments by viewers for ever. Hope you will look into this.
Good stuff, but a bit late. Ever since our wise-old Chacha Nehru took Kashmir to the UN, the August (if we can call it that) body has made few, if any, judgements/remarks/declarations that have helped Indian interests in any way.
India should do her best in pushing the organisation to either reform (in line with our needs, as the US often does) or become extinct/irrelevant. Tragically, however, given our complete ineptitude in shaping international perception (driven by our ability to do the 'moral' thing) I do not see this happening for the next few decades, at the very least.
dear swapan ur criteria of enlightend indians is very interesting. i am really happy that UN has started recognizing all unenlightened individuals like me who beleive in proportional reservations,multiple identities,freedom to choose ones identity,opposition to fanatics in the name of nation,religion,language etc.there are no two standards. if punjab and cauvery refuses to part with water it is considered wrong but following thackerays advice to ignore water agreements with pakistan and make them starve is nationalistic and getting enlightened.thank god that there are alot of unenlightened indians.nice of u to have included amartya sen among the unenlightened individuals.it is a pleasure to be in the company of people like him than in the enlightened company of swapan,thackeray,advani and govindacharya.nice to hear aboutreagons truimph.can u enlighten us on how he improved the lot of native indians,blacks,immigrants etc or by his disregard for democratic norms he comes ideologically closer to ur favourite aryan hero hitler
We all know about duel standard of UN. What UN is doing for Red Indians in US ? What UN is doing for aboriginal people in Australia ? What UN is doing for Tibet ? What happen in Tinammen Square in China ? The latest what it did for Iraq when Bush and Party invaded it?
A well researched article.If we go by the history of UN ,it has never been an impartial organisation.Even the 'veto power' indicates that power is to be shared by a few select.Its record is also not clean.It is ment only to legitimise the actions of the powerful nations.Recent example is the happening in Iraq.It is Amarican President and the country he represent which has committed crime against humanity but it is Saddam who is being tried.Whatever be our opinion about Saddam he was the ligitimate ruler of Iraq.Others has forced there will on that nation.the results are ther for all to see.
Although I agree with Swapandas Gupta's article, I will add that the world's foremost protectors of Freedom and Democracy is always blinded by thier superiority in UN decision making. I am talking about the Western countries monopolizes the activities of the UN. In India's case we are literally the world's largest democracy and in the very sense that irrespective of one's religion, economic status anybody can run for an election. Can you imagine a poor person with no holding to big corporation running for an election in America, may be in dreams. In their eyes we are third world, backward country. But their real worry is that we are not going to be the lacky of anybody. That is why "Our entry to the Security Council is always thwarted by these so called protectors of freedom and Democracy". But I am sure that we will be there one day, and it will be sooner.
Well said Swapan, except that you miss the point that the Singh administration seems more or less to have promised to implement the report. The rest of the world understands such reports as platitudes never to see the light of day, but not the leaders and intellectuals that only Bharat seems capable of producing. England shorn of its greatness seems to have found its vocation in promoting the moral rectitude of the likes of Amartya Sen or Manmohan Singh. One only has to look at the national minimum program. The purge of the UN might happen one day, but I wonder if we will ever be rid of the problematical individuals that are closer at home? Sen and Singh are not the only champions of the poor and dispossessed, and it is desirable to confine them to their limited area of expertise where they can do the least harm. For Bharats media to attribute any other skills and capabilities that has no foundation in fact is both dangerous and culpable and on their part. It is becoming increasingly futile to ask the media or its readers possession of the critical faculties so essential in a democracy. As Plato would have it, a benevolent dictatorship would be preferable.
Das Gupta has drawn attention to a very important problem of UNO being used as a tool supporting secession, fragmentation of sovereign states advocating minoritism,reservations and favouritism so dear to our fellow-travellers in India and other states where majority ommunity is held in ransom.Prof.SEN as usual is busy in getting more and more by way of funds,global travelling delivering superflous,sanctimonious speeches and getting wah-wahs from a communist crowd Bliss
