India sweeps into UN Security Council

United Nations: In the end it was not the win but the manner of the win that was most impressive. India not only regained a seat at the hallowed panel of the United Nations Security Council after a gap of 19 years, but garnering an emphatic 187 votes out of a possible 190 made it evident that its candidacy for a permanent seat on the Council was perhaps the most formidable amongst all the competing G4 nations.

India needed an endorsement from atleast 128 countries, or two-thirds of the 191 members of the UN General Assembly, to gain admission at the Council table. It ended up collecting a massive 187.

India was elected through the Asian quota replacing outgoing member Japan. As a founding member of the United Nations, India has served on the Council, which is the apex body of this world organisation, six times earlier. The last time it took a seat at the horse shoe-shaped table was in 1992.

India will begin serving its two year term in January 2011.

Another contender for the Asian seat, Kazakhstan, pulled out of the race earlier this year leaving the field clear for India.

Hardeep Singh Puri, India's permanent representative to the United Nations, pointed out that the 187 votes that India received was the highest number of votes collected by any nation for getting into the United Nations Security Council in the past five years.