What exactly is India asking the world to vote for?

The 'Mother of Democracy' is standing for a non-permanent elected seat at the United Nations Security Council. Non-permanent because it is a two-year term, and elected because 10 seats are shared between the 188 member states wanting to sit alongside the five permanent members. These 10 seats come with no veto power, so if any one of China, America, France, Russia or the UK does not want something, it is rejected no matter how the other 14 vote.

'Mother' has been elected eight times before, the last time as recently as 2021-22. I cannot remember what we achieved then and am unsure why we are contesting again, but a clue is available in the date. The term is for 2028 and 2029, which means that bang in the middle of the next general election, we will have the opportunity to erect hoardings and pretend we are globally important. Remember the G20 presidency from a couple of years ago.

Elections at the UN are in June next year and there is one other candidate in the Asia-Pacific group whom we have to defeat (or get to withdraw), and that is Tajikistan. It has the advantage of being endorsed by the 56 voting members of the Organisation of Islamic Conference and of attracting the sympathy vote as a nation that has never been elected even once.

Candidates need the support of two-thirds of the total 193 member states — 129 votes if all nations are present and voting. Theoretically, it is possible for us to win without any of the 56 OIC votes, but it will be tough. We must do some jugaad to get Tajikistan to withdraw or break the Muslim bloc with the appeal of our platform.

So what is our platform? It was announced through an address by external affairs minister S. Jaishankar. As with most things in New India, the acronym is the most important bit. This time we have been given SHANTI, which expands to 'Securing Holistic Advancement through Norms, Trust and Integrity'. It sounds like something our election commission says, or Delhi Police.

SHANTI has six elements.

The first is the claim that India is the Voice of the Global South. How? Where? That is not explained, but let us assume it is true.

Second is reformed multilateralism, which is a fancy way of saying: give us a permanent UNSC seat.

Third is peacekeeping. Readers may not know that a few nations dominate the UN peacekeeping force. The largest contributor is Nepal, followed by India, Bangladesh, Rwanda and Pakistan. India will make peacekeeping 'future-ready', which Jaishankar says "means to be better equipped, to be technologically enabled, to be realistically mandated and focused on core objectives". Perhaps it means we will issue Aadhaar cards.

Fourth is artificial intelligence, where our role is unclear given that America and China are the only two nations with AI capabilities. Jaishankar clarifies that Mother's contribution here is yet another acronym. He says: "India has put forward a human-centric vision of AI, that draws on both its capabilities and on India's traditions. Our word for that is MANAV, which is an acronym for Moral and ethical systems, Accountable governance, National sovereignty, Accessible and inclusive, and Valid and legitimate systems." Okay.

Fifth is maritime order, which is to say that Iran should stop blockading Hormuz.

Sixth is terrorism, our most favourite subject. Jaishankar says: "Our commitment is to concentrate on countering terror financing." This is not true. In its September 2024 Mutual Evaluation Report on India, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) rated India as only 'partially compliant' because of Mother's dislike of NGOs, about which I have written here before.

These six things comprise our platform. Perhaps the world will find this scintillating manifesto reason enough to vote for us.

But we will also have to address the two related, gigantic global issues of our time: the illegal war in Iran affecting everyone, and the genocide in Palestine.

On the first, we have nothing to say because we are afraid to speak against Trump and we accepted a medal from Israel hours before the war began.

On the second, recognising that it needs to be mentioned, Jaishankar said in his address: "We have only yesterday at the Palestine donor group meeting in Brussels, additionally committed to setting up a specialty hospital, an artificial limb fitment centre and a vocational training institute for Palestine."

But of course our real record on Palestine is clear and transparent. India abstained from votes calling for Israel to stop bombing Gaza. Only one nation has voluntarily and enthusiastically embraced Israel amid its genocide and apartheid against Palestinians, and that is India. Germany does it out of historic guilt. America does it because of the Israel lobby. India alone has decided it hates Palestinians enough to love Israel.

As my organisation Amnesty International revealed last week, India has been shipping weapons to Israel, including warheads and other munitions used against Palestinian children. Mother of Democracy sold Israel the bombs that severed the arms and legs of Gaza's girls and boys, and now Mother is promising to give them artificial limbs in future.

Asked to respond to the Amnesty report, the government said: "India has a robust legal and regulatory framework on strategic trade controls and carries out its export of dual-use items and technologies to various countries in accordance with its national laws and consistent with its international obligations."

Meaning we will continue to send the bombs.

And so, all nations of the world, please vote for Mother of Democracy because, as Jaishankar said in his address, "India advocates vasudhaiva kutumbakam (the world is a family) as an approach. We don't simply preach; we practice it as well."

Views are personal. More of Aakar Patel’s writing here