Is India Losing The UN?

ROME

Is India slowly losing the United Nations with a diminishing presence and aweaker voice at policy-making levels? There was a time when Indians headed UNagencies, shaped policy and exercised greater influence, but today the story isdifferent. India recently lost two major attempts at securing a higher profilebut there is much more to the UN than the post of the secretary general and apermanent seat. An organization is not merely a head but body and limbs, fingersand toes as well.

Mourning period over, New Delhi must develop a strategy for an effectivemultilateral presence that embraces a wider arena spread across all cities whereUN agencies are located, not just the shining skyscrapers of Manhattan. A freshlook at the United Nations system might help if India wants to grow politicalmuscle to match its obvious economic strength. You can’t become a great powermerely on the basis of large foreign exchange reserves. Both experienced andyounger candidates need to get into the system for India to be heard. And Indiahas much to offer to specialized UN agencies dealing with agriculture, food andhealth.

The United Nations may be much reviled and abused by powerful countries, butit remains the only playing field for the rest. It is the forum often of thefirst and always the last resort where the less powerful can debate the giants.Sometimes even fight and stymie them. The UN is still a noble idea even thoughit has been used for ignoble means. But over the years, India has been losingsenior positions within the system and with the departure of Shashi Tharoor asUN under secretary-general for communications and public information and theretirement of Phrang Roy, assistant president of UN’s International Fund forAgricultural Development, there are hardly any Indians at the second level.True, there is the newly appointed Vijay Nambiar, chef de cabinet of SecretaryGeneral Ban Ki-Moon but his role will be more that of a confidant than a policymaker. Ban and Nambiar have been friends for more than three decades since thetime when they were both in Delhi as diplomats. The other senior Indian is AtulKhare, who was appointed UN’s special representative to Timor-Leste lastDecember, making him the only person with an independent charge.

Go back to the 1970s and the picture was quite different when senior Indianexperts headed at least three independent UN entities and India was wellrepresented. C.P. Srivastava was the director-general of the InternationalMaritime Organisation for four terms from 1971 to 1989. He was awarded anhonorary knighthood by Queen Elizabeth for his service to the world of shipping.Then there was S.S. Gill, director-general of UN’s International CivilAviation Organisation while Arcot Ramachandran was executive director of the UNCentre on Human Settlements from 1978 to 1991 where he is remembered forlaunching several new initiatives on shelter for all and sustainable cities. Heis now chairman of Tata Energy and Resource Institute.

Fast forward to 2007 and there are no senior Indians at UNHCR or UNICEF.There is one assistant director general at UNESCO. In Rome, where three major UNorganizations are based – Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), World FoodProgramme (WFP) and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) –there are no Indians in the first or second tier. There "Indian quota" atmid- and lower- levels may appear full at UN agencies across the board but manyof them have graduated to professional services by taking an internal exam. Theyare not a pool from which senior positions can be filled. Those are awardedafter governments stake a position.

In the game of political give and take, lobbying behind the scenes andcutting deals, India is lackadaisical. Even when positions are offered on aplatter, New Delhi can’t get its act together to search and offer a candidate.Or it shies away from grabbing power because of outdated calculations. A westernambassador in Rome told me India was asked to propose a candidate for thedirector general ship of FAO in 2005 because of discontent against Jacques Diouf,the incumbent whose style of functioning was seen as questionable. Diouf hadalready served two six-year terms and many countries felt a change was needed.Support was promised but India stayed silent and Diouf went on to win a thirdsix-year term. As one senior Indian in the UN system said, "Now our relationswith the United States are such that we can talk about these things candidly."

Indian diplomats on the UN beat say that Delhi is disinterested in UNagencies other than the headquarters in New York. One former official told mehow despite careful reporting of prospects and positions in three Rome-basedorganizations, not a paper moved in Delhi, forget a systematic effort to spot acandidate. Another Indian working in New York said that "most governmentofficials don’t push for an Indian unless it is themselves." There are otherproblems as well. Many senior officials consider postings other than New York tobe "punishment" and don’t want to relocate from their comfortablefiefdoms. The younger brains are more attracted to the private sector. Besides,the vacancies are usually announced in The Economist, a magazine notaccessible to many in India. But as a retiring official suggested, thegovernment of India can always re-advertise in Indian papers.

And as always, the Chinese are ahead of the curve. They have been gettingmore and more qualified people into the system. China won the directorgeneralship of the World Health Organisation last year with the appointment ofDr. Margaret Chan and recently Ban Ki-Moon chose Sha Zukang, China’s permanentrepresentative to UN in Geneva, as the UN under secretary general for economicand social affairs, a key position. It is apparent China flexed some muscle insecuring Sha’s appointment, placing a key man in New York to watch the otherpermanent members while tending the "developing world" constituency. It is adouble whammy for India because Sha was one of the fiercest and most acerbiccritics of Indian nuclear tests in 1998. He beat down American doors to punishand isolate India, arguing vehemently for maximum outrage.

India is also nowhere to be seen in the lucrative consultancy corridors ofthe UN. Western consultants scandalously dominate the business, grabbingshort-term positions to advise poor, needy African countries at hundreds ofdollars a day on management, agricultural, computer. It is a cartel that needsto be broken and some real altruism brought in. India can send eminent peoplelike Narayanmurthy to advise UN agencies. They will do a better job at afraction of the cost. A panel of experts, who have retired from their jobs,could be created and offered as advisers to specialized UN agencies. As a bonus,UN members would get some real developing country-solutions for theirdevelopment needs.

And finally, India could offer to increase its contributions to agencieswhere clout is directly proportional to the amount of money you put in. Whatgood are huge foreign reserves if they don’t buy you something?