NEW DELHI: India’s month-long presidency in United Nations Security Council will witness a landmark installation of a bust of Mahatma Gandhi in the north lawn of the UN Headquarters on December 14. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will be present at the inauguration. The other attendees of the ceremony would include five incoming new Council members — Ecuador, Japan, Malta, Mozambique and Switzerland.
“These five new members, whose two-year tenure at the Council, will begin on January 1, 2023, will replace India, Ireland, Kenya, Mexico and Norway and join the five permanent members China, France, Russia, the UK and the US as well as non-permanent members Albania, Brazil, Gabon, Ghana and the United Arab Emirates,’’ said sources.
The bust of Gandhi has been sculpted by renowned Indian sculptor Ram Sutar, who has also designed the ‘Statue of Unity’. Gandhi’s legacy of peace and non-violence and PM Modi’s assertion that this is
“No Era for War” is amongst the factors instrumental in the installation of the Gandhi bust at UNHQ.
Other notable works of art at UNHQ include a section of the Berlin wall donated by Germany, a Soviet sculpture Let Us Beat Swords into Ploughshares, a life-size bronze statue of Nelson Mandela gifted by South Africa, and the ‘Guernica’ tapestry after the painting Guernica by Pablo Picasso.
“The only other gift from India presently on display at the UN Headquarters is a 11th-century black-stone statue of ‘Surya’, the Sun God, that was installed on July 26, 1982. The statue, dating from the late Pala period is currently displayed in the Conference Building. This was presented as a gift by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to the United Nations.
Meanwhile, India, on December 1, assumed the monthly rotating presidency of the Security Council, the second after August 2021 that India is presiding over the Council during its two-year tenure as an elected UNSC member.
India’s 2021-2022 term on the Council ends on December 31, with Ruchira Kamboj, India’s first woman Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, sitting in the president’s seat at the horseshoe table for the month.
“Our presidency will mark the arrival of Mahatma Gandhi at UN. There would be two signature events that would be chaired by Jaishankar. They are the reformed multilateralism and the counter terrorism,’’ said Kamboj. Meanwhile, an event organised under India’s month-long presidency, will also witness the launch of a “Group of Friends” for accountability of crimes against UN peacekeepers.
“Robust peacekeeping has been one of our priorities of the Security Council,’’ Kamboj added. Following up on Resolution 2589, which had focussed on the safety and security of peacekeepers, the Group of Friends will bring the spotlight on the task of peacekeepers.
‘No Era for War’
The bust of Gandhi has been sculpted by renowned Indian sculptor Ram Sutar, who has also designed the ‘Statue of Unity’. Gandhi’s legacy of peace and non-violence and PM Modi’s assertion that this is “No Era for War” is amongst the factors instrumental in the installation of the Gandhi bust at UNHQ.