question_answer

Describe any six criteria for the new membership of Security Council as suggested after 1997.

Or

What is meant by Security? Mention any four components of Indian security strategy.

Answer:

The leaders in this meeting decided that the following steps should be taken to make the UN more relevant in the changing context.

1. Creation of a Peace building Commission.

2. Acceptance of the responsibility of the international community in case of failures of national governments to protect their own citizens from atrocities.

3. Establishment of a Human Rights Council (operational since 19 June, 2006)

4. Agreements to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

5. Condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.

6. Creation of a Democracy Fund.

7. An agreement to wind up the Trusteeship Council.

Or

Every time a person steps out of his or her house, there is some degree of threat to their existence and way of life. Our world would be saturated with security issues if we took such a broad view of what is threatening.

Security relates only to extremely dangerous threats-threats that could so endanger core values that those values would be damaged beyond repair if we did not do something to deal with the situation.

The first component was strengthening its military capabilities because India has been involved in conflicts with its neighbours - Pakistan in 1947-48, 1965, 1971 and 1999; and China in 1962. Since it is surrounded by nuclear armed countries in the South Asian region, India?s decision to conduct nuclear tests in 1998 was justified by the Indian government in terms of safeguarding national security. India first tested a nuclear device in 1974.

The second component of India?s security strategy has been to strengthen international norms and international institutions to protect its security interests. India?s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, supported the cause of Asian solidarity, decolonization, disarmament, and the UN as a forum in which international conflicts could be settled. India also took initiatives to bring about a universal and non - discriminatory non-proliferation regime in which all countries would have the same rights and obligations with respect to weapons of mass destruction (nuclear, biological, chemical). It argued for an equitable New International Economic Order (NIEO).

The third component of Indian security strategy is geared towards meeting security challenges within the country. Several militant groups from areas such as the Nagaland, Mizoram, the Punjab, and Kashmir among others have, from time to time, sought to break away from India. India has tried to preserve national unity by adopting a democratic political system, which allows different communities and groups of people to freely articulate their grievances and share political power. Finally, there has been an attempt in India to develop its economy in a way that the vast mass of citizens are lifted out of poverty and misery and huge economic inequalities are not allowed to exist. The attempt has not quite succeeded; we are still a very poor and unequal country. Yet democratic politics allows spaces for articulating the voice of the poor and the deprived citizens.