Undeterred, Tharoor calls Pak’s bluff

NEW DELHI: Unfazed by Pakistan’s move to vie for UN secretary general’s post, India’s nominee Shashi Tharoor on Sunday said he would “welcome any qualified candidate” from that country or anywhere else as “merit” rather than passport would be the main qualification.

He also dismissed the Pakistani contention that there was no tradition of a large country fielding its candidate for the post of UN secretary general or any country seeking both the top post of the world body and permanent membership of the Security Council.

“Not at all. On the contrary, the world deserves as broad a choice as possible,” Mr Tharoor, UN under secretary general for communication and public information, said when asked whether he felt Pakistan’s move to field its own candidate against him could spoil his chances.

“I welcome any qualified candidate and hope there will be many more from Pakistan or anywhere else,” he said ahead of his talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and senior external affairs ministry officials during his three-day visit here to formulate “next steps” towards ensuring his win.

The 50-year-old noted author underlined that each of the candidate, including him, “will have to stand on our own merits and will have to have own credentials, rather than our passports as the principal qualification”.

On the Pakistan permanent envoy to the UN Munir Akram’s contention that no country seeks the secretary general’s post as well as permanent membership of the Security Council, Mr Tharoor said these two issues were “completely unconnected”.

A veteran at the United Nations, he said, “The secretary generalship is about running the organisation... If I am elected, I would be accountable to 191 countries, not to any one (country).”

He emphasised that the Indian government has had a “long tradition of respect for the independence of international civil service, very much along the lines of India’s respect for the neutrality of bureaucracy at home where Indian civil servants are not expected to have any commitments to any particular political party and rather to the Constitution of India”.

The London-born Indian said: “First of all, I do not see a particular problem with regard to any national policy that India may pursue at the United Nations because India would do so bearing in mind its own national interest whereas I would be in a position to work for the collective interest of the United Nations.”

A history graduate from Delhi’s prestigious Stephen’s College, Tharoor faces contest from at least three Asian contenders - Thailand’s deputy prime minister Surakiart Sathirathai, South Korean foreign minister Ban ki-moon and Sri Lanka’s Jayantha Dhanapala.

On Pakistan’s claim that no big country fields its candidate for the top UN post, Mr Tharoor said: “Let us not forget that we have already had secretary general from Egypt.”

Tharoor sounded confident on getting support to his candidature from five permanent members of the UN Security Council, including China, about whose backing doubts are being expressed in certain quarters here. “It would not be appropriate for any candidate to characterise views of any government but his own.

“So, I am not going to characterise views of China or any other country. They will have to do so for themselves,” he said when asked about possibility of Beijing backing him.

He, however, underlined that the Indian government “has not taken this decision (to nominate him) without taking into account the views of various governments”. Mr Tharoor was named by India as its candidate with an assertion that the next secretary general should be from Asia as per the principle of rotation. Incumbent Kofi Annan retires in December.

On the prospects of support from the US, which on Saturday gave a guarded response to his candidature, Mr Tharoor said the question would better be answered by Washington. “But you can be assured that whatever needs to be done to lay out our credentials before the world, we are doing it. I am personally doing it and government is also doing it,” he added.

On how he will manage campaigning considering his pre-occupation as UN under secretary general for communications and public information, he said he would take leave. “I have accrued far more leave than I am able to use. I will just take more than I am used to taking,” said Tharoor, who has served the UN in various capacities over last several years.

“I am continuing to do my job and if I am doing anything in connection with my personal aspirations, I will do so in my leave time,” Tharoor said.

The UN under secretary general said he had already held talks with Annan with regard to the issue.

To a query, the Indian candidate said there is a long established convention that any country that holds a permanent seat in the Security Council with a veto should not put up a candidate for secretary general’s post. “The logic behind this is no one country should have the possibility of both initiating action through secretary general and stopping action through veto. That will give one country too much powers,” he said.

“As you are aware, India is not a permanent member of the Security Council and does not have a veto and therefore, that unwritten convention would not apply to India,” he added.

On his India visit, Tharoor said, “The idea is very much to renew contact with my home base.”