United Nations: India has told the UN that its top organ, the Security Council, ‘uniquely’ lacks the legitimacy to counsel nations on merits of political inclusiveness due to its non-representative character.

"The imperative of political inclusion should not become an imposition of prescriptions on the affected population by the Security Council," Deputy Permanent Representative of India to the UN Bhagwant Singh Bishnoi said in a Council debate on 'Inclusive development for the maintenance of international peace and security' here on Monday.

He said that a holistic vision of international security based on the interdependence of the three pillars of the UN system, peace and security, development and human rights does not ipso facto mean that the Security Council should arrogate to itself all these functions.

The focus should be not on how the Security Council should embrace the notion of interdependence of the three pillars to safeguard international security, but how the UN system as a whole should do so.

"In any case, while the mandate of the Security Council is to act on behalf of the wider membership, it uniquely lacks the legitimacy, on account of its non-representative character, to counsel states on the merits of political inclusiveness," he added.

Bishnoi said that just because security has many dimensions, it does not mean that the Security Council must fit itself into all of them. He noted that there are separate organs within the UN system tasked to manage the three pillars.

"Synergy and complementarity need to be our watchwords, not duplication and co-option," he said.

On the issues of inclusive development, Bishnoi said the Security Council should not encroach on the mandate of the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council.

Nearly 80 speakers were on the list to speak at the debate and Bishnoi said this does not legitimise bringing the subject to the Security Council, a position echoed by South Africa, as Chair of the G77.

Bishnoi further said that so far as the issue of political inclusion is concerned, it is equally important to remember the oft-repeated maxim that there is no one-size-fits-all.

"The efforts for ensuring broader political inclusion within national contexts must reflect national circumstances and realities and avoid repeating and reinforcing the existing paradigm of foisting externally formulated policies and programmes for countries transitioning out of conflict," he said.

He added that traditionally, the development pillar of the UN system has been the most under-funded and even in cases where the system does focus on development, it is increasingly diverting itself from the central premise of eradication of poverty and hunger and the forging of international cooperation to assist developing countries on to the path of sustainable development.

"We talk of development in the Security Council, and then wish the development agenda to focus on peace and security! This approach can only lead to confusion, not results," he said adding that peace and stability within societies cannot be considered in isolation from their international context.

They are directly connected to and are affected by conditions of instability and insecurity at the international level, he said.

Bishnoi stressed that the international community must seize the "momentous opportunity" provided by the Post-2015 Development Agenda to craft and implement policies for genuine international collaboration for eradication of poverty and promotion of sustainable development.