GS II Important International institutions, agencies and fora- their structure, mandate.

Explain the reasons for the UNSCs reforms unavoidable and also discuss the challenges for India to become one of the UNSCs members.

Established by the UN Charter in 1945, the UN Security Council or UNSC is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations. It is headquartered in New York. The primary responsibility of the UNSC is to maintain international peace and security. Further, UNSC is the only UN body with the authority to issue binding resolutions to member states.

UNSC Reforms unavoidable:

• UNSC was composed by victors of the Second World War in 1945 to suit their interests and the UN Charter was designed accordingly, giving to themselves the permanent membership and veto power in the council.
  • However, the geopolitical, strategic, economic realities have changed considerably since then, but the UNSC has not reformed itself to these global realities
  • With global economic and population fulcrum shifting to Indo-Pacific, inadequate Asian representation and no African and Latin American representation are pushing UN to irrelevance, unless it reforms itself
  • Currently, the governing capacity of the international security relations rests with the elite class of countries
  • The veto powers enjoyed by the permanent members of UNSC doesn’t seem to suit the current global security needs
  • Further, the UNSC has not been successful in understanding the international changes and dynamics in the area of human security and peace

Challenges for India:

• In the fast-changing dynamics, the issues that will arise during India’s tenure two and three years down the road, in the highest decision-making organ concerned with peace and conflict in the global organisation, are clearly problematic. Some of the challenges for India can be:
• Tensions between major powers; proxy wars in West Asia, and widespread and scattershot use of threat and economic sanctions by the United States.

• The rise of China and the bogey of Russian aggression are resisted through military and economic measures by Washington.
  • The race is on for supremacy in artificial intelligence, high technology, and 5G which will have strategic significance in future decades.
  • Rising polarisation between the major powers.
  • ‘America First’ doctrine makes U.S. foreign policy more transactional, which in turn will generate less traction to the reform process within the UN and the expansion of permanent membership of the UNSC to which India aspires.
  • The inclusion of India, Japan, Germany, and Brazil in the UNSC, to which package India is formally committed, will create an even greater imbalance in favour of the West versus the Rest in world affairs.

Way forward

1. India should begin playing an active role, rather than pursuing a policy of silence on most of the issues in international security which UNSC permanent members are often concerned with, from nuclear proliferation in Iran and North Korea, to human rights violations in Syria
2. India could also think of aligning its foreign policy on a more coherent note, to better impact its presence in the Geopolitics of the world.

~Source The Hindu

https://thehindu.com/opinion/lead/permanent-membership-of-the-unsc-is-another- story/article65943147.ece

GS II Indian Constitution – historical underpinnings, evolution, features, amendments, significant provisions and basic structure.

Examine the changing nature of Indian federalism since Independence.

The constitution of India has created a Union of states. India has a quasi-federal set up with a strong centre. The issues of autonomy of the states, powers allowed and shared between the centre and the states, changing nature of Indian economy has all led to a change in the nature of Indian federalism.

CHANGING NATURE:

• Post-Independence the issue of federalism began to rise with the demand for new states on the basis of language.
  • After the formation of the states came the issue of imposition of constitutional emergency, one that continues even now.
  • From 1991 till 2016, there have been 32 instances of the exercise of this power compared to 92 instances in the preceding period.
  • In S.R. Bommai v. Union of India (1994), the limitation laid down by the Supreme Court might have placed gentle breaks on exercise of this power, but the Centre continues to wield superior legislative powers, including residuary powers and legislative precedence.
  • Historically States have always sought parity with the Centre which is evident through the Rajmannar commission and similar such commissions constituted by the states.
  • Post globalisation the concepts of cooperative federalism and competitive federalism have evolved that has made the states to function in cooperation and competition among them and vis-a-vis the Centre.
  • Recently, in Govt. of NCT of Delhi v. Union of India, the Supreme Court gently tilted the balance of executive power in favour of the Government of the National Capital Territory vis-à-vis the Lieutenant Governor.

With the changing nature of federalism arise new issues which need to be resolved constitutionally.