Calling for quicker reforms, India for the second time made a strong case for expansion and democratisation of the United Nations Security Council. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his America visit pitched for reforms and said that no one country or a group of select countries should have a monopoly over important decisions that concern the entire world. International participation was imperative in a world that is rapidly changing and which has transformed tremendously since the 20th century. Now, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has raised the pitch for democratisation and urged the international community to take early action to reform it in order to shore up the legitimacy of the world body itself. She was addressing a session of the Preparatory Committee for the Fourth World Conference of Speakers of Parliaments at UN on the subject of key challenges to world peace and democracy. She pointed out that the Council’s composition was based on UN’s structure in 1945 when it had 51 members and now the figure is 193. At the founding of the UN, there were only three African members, including South African apartheid regime, Mahajan pointed out. “Today it has 54,” she said. “How many permanent members of the Security Council are from Africa?” Pressing the case for changing the composition of the Council, she asked, “While improvement in working methods, or a code of conduct on use of the veto, is important, can they substitute for reform of the composition? Can improvement in working methods legitimise a structure that is not legitimate? To say that is anachronistic is only an understatement.” In 2010 during the 65th Anniversary of the United Nations, world leaders had committed themselves to the early reform of the Council. Although the membership of the Council was increased from 11 to 15 in 1965 with addition of four elected members, permanent membership continues to be restricted to the original five who wield veto powers. In any expansion of the permanent membership, India, Germany, Brazil, Japan and an African nation would be the top contenders.
