Pakistan in UNSC a thorn in India's side

‘A spectre is haunting Europe.’ One hundred and seventy-six years after those five prophetic words were written as the opening sentence of the Communist Manifesto, an altogether new ‘spectre’ is haunting Europe. This time, it is Islam.

Anti-immigrant parties — a euphemism for those opposed to migration from proximate Muslim majority nations like Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, and not-so-near Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan — surged in elections to the European Parliament on June 9. For sure, there were other reasons too for this surge, but minor, in comparison to fears of a Muslim influx. The government in France fell. President Emmanuel Macron dissolved the National Assembly and ordered a snap parliamentary poll. Long-time aspirant to national office, Right-winger Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party polled double the number of votes received by Macron’s centrist Renaissance party on June 9. 

Far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy, which bears the brunt of illegal migration from Muslim nations like Libya — a former Italian colony — is the rising star of Europe after polls to the European Parliament. In Germany, which started it all, during Angela Merkel’s long rule, her successor Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats finished a miserable third.

Merkel — masquerading as an altruist — foolishly opened Europe’s doors to Muslim refugees from Syria and Iraq in the expectation that educated, but cheap, immigrants from these countries would shore up the German economy which was under threat from high domestic wages. Instead, these disaffected migrants — radical Daesh sympathisers among them — began to impose Sharia-type restrictions on the German way of life by force, even resorting to fatal knifings. Saddest of all, in Scandinavian countries, which always offered the comforting endorsement of social democracy via the ballot box, far Right parties siphoned off voters while choosing their representatives to the European Parliament this time.

The following sentences of the 1848 Communist Manifesto, penned by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, were as prophetic as the first in the context of Islamophobia today. It has both immediate and long-term implications for India. ‘All the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre...Where is the party in opposition that has not been decried as communistic by its opponents in power?’ They have a chilling effect today when Indians with dissenting views are told to go to Pakistan by the Indian Right.

This month, these philosophical issues acquired a dangerous dimension for India with Pakistan’s election to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for a two-year term. Pakistan received the third-highest support from the community of nations. The UN has 193 members. Among them, Denmark was elected to the UNSC with 184 votes and Panama with 183 votes. Next came Pakistan with a huge endorsement of 182 votes. The other two nations elected on June 6 were Greece and Somalia, the last with the lowest endorsement. The voting in the UN General Assembly has jolted India out of its false comfort that Pakistan is a pariah State, sinking into a morass of quicksand and global ostracism. It is important to wake up and be prepared for a Pakistani diplomatic assault on India right from January 1, 2025, when it joins the UNSC. Islamabad is certain to globalise the ‘spectre’ of Islamophobia in Europe, and play victim at India’s hands. Pakistan’s response at the famous horseshoe table, around which UNSC meetings are held, will be to promote ‘Hinduphobia’ at the UN. 

The ground for such a promotion is fertile for Pakistan in the world body now. The UN observes March 15 every year as the ‘International Day to Combat Islamophobia.’ The war in Gaza is a boon for Pakistani diplomats in New York as they prepare for UNSC membership. The UN Secretary-General is required under UNSC resolution 2334 to report to the council every three months on the status of Palestinian territories occupied by Israel. Islamabad will attempt to use this resolution to bring Kashmir into its ambit following the abrogation of Article 370.

The UNSC has a procedure known as the ‘Arria formula’ that allows any council member to call a meeting on any subject, away from the horseshoe table bypassing the council’s president. Arria formula meetings are held in the Trusteeship Council chamber. Pakistan is certain to call such a meeting on Kashmir once it joins the UNSC. Such diplomatic manoeuvres cannot damage India, but they can be a constant thorn in India’s side for the next two years. The Permanent Mission of India to the UN in New York will have to constantly look over its shoulder.

(K P Nayar has extensively covered West Asia and reported from Washington as a foreign correspondent for 15 years)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.