In US, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is trying his best to get countries on India’s side to help it get a seat in the UN Security Council. However, we had been offered the same by US in the 1950s and if Nehru had pushed it through, India would have had the clout that China has now.
In 1955, with the Cold War at its peak, it is believed that America offered Nehru the possibility of India getting a seat in the UN Security Council. The UN Security Council began with four members: USA, Russia, France and Great Britain. These countries were the allied forces that had won World War II. India too had a rightful place in the council, since it was providing treasure and more than two million men in the war front. Certainly, more than China had done.
But India was not an independent country when the UN was started, so the offer of membership came soon after it became independent. The US did not want Mao’s Communist China as a member and initially thought of giving it to Formosa (Taiwan) where Chaing Kai Shek and his National Army had moved after being defeated by Mao in the mainland.
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