Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation

PM’s address at the 75th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session 2020

  • Respected President of the General Assembly. On behalf of over 1.3 billion people of India, I would like to congratulate every member country on the 75th anniversary of the United Nations.
  • India is proud of the fact that it is one of the founding members of the United Nations. On this historic occasion, I have come to this global platform to share the sentiments of 1.3 billion people of India.
  • Your Excellency, The world of 1945 was significantly different from today’s world. The global situation, sources-resources, problems-solutions; all were quite different.
  • And as a result the form and the composition of the institution, established with the aim of global welfare, were in accordance with the prevailing situation of those times.
  • Today we are in a completely different era. In 21st century, The requirements and challenges of our present as well as our future are vastly different from those of the past.
  • Therefore, the international community today is faced with a very important question: Whether the character of the institution, constituted in the prevailing circumstances of 1945, is relevant even today?
  • If century changes and we don’t, then strength to bring changes becomes weak. If we assess the last 75 years of the United Nations, we see several achievements
  • But at the same time, there are also several instances that point to a serious need for introspection for the United Nations. One could say that we have successfully avoided a third world war, but we cannot deny that there have been several wars and many civil wars.
  • Several terrorist attacks shook the world and there have been bloodsheds. The people who lost their lives in these wars and attacks were human beings, like you and me.
  • Thousands of children, who would have otherwise enriched this world, left us prematurely. So many people lost their life savings and became homeless refugees.
  • Were the efforts of the United Nations sufficient during those times or are these efforts adequate even today? The whole world is fighting the global pandemic of Corona for the last 8-9 months.
  • Where is the United Nations in this joint fight against the pandemic? Where is its effective response? Your Excellency, Reform in the responses, in the processes, in the character of the United Nations is the need of the hour.
  • It is a fact that the faith and respect that the United Nations enjoys in India are unparalleled. But it is also true that the people of India have been waiting for a long time for the completion of the reforms of the United Nations. Today, people of India are concerned whether this reform-process will ever reach its logical conclusion?
  • For how long will India be kept out of the decision-making structures of the United Nations? A country, which is the largest democracy of the world, A country with more than 18% of the world population, A country, which has hundreds of languages, hundreds of dialects, many sects, many ideologies, A country, which was a leading global economy for centuries and also one which has seen hundreds of years of foreign rule.
  • Your Excellency, When we were strong, we did not trouble the world; when we were weak, we did not become a burden on the world.
  • Your Excellency, How long would a country have to wait particularly when the changes happening in that country affect a large part of the world?