Yashwant flays Modi Govt for pursuing G+4 route for UNSC membership

New Delhi, Sep 26: Senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha today criticized Narendra Modi government for following the footsteps of its predecessor UPA dispensation and aligning with Germany, Japan and Brazil in its quest for permanent membership of UN Security Council.

Sinha, a former External Affairs Minister, said India could have taken a path different from the G+4 and need not have pursued the grouping with the "vigour" with which it is doing now.

Modi made a "mistake" by continuing with UPA's strategy of relying on G-4, Sinha said adding that it was one thing to align with developing countries and another to include two developed countries - Germany and Japan--in this group.

Asked if Modi should have pursued the UNSC permanent membership case differently rather than following Manmohan Singh government, Sinha said "yes, I would agree with that.

The more we show the unity of G4, the greater will be the opposition to new inductions as permanant members and the chances will recede further.

"We need not have pursued the G4 with the vigour with which we are doing," Sinha told Karan Thapar on India Today TV when asked if this was a foriegn policy mistake on India's part.

He said that it was India's mistake not to join the global coalition against terror group ISIS and the United States and P5 + 1 group's efforts to contain Iran's nuclear programme.

"As far as ISIS is concerned, India should have been at the forefront of organising an alliance at the global level to fight ISIS and not merely leave it to indivudual Arab countries.

"They are doing permanant damage to our civilisational heritage. They are killing people in the most brutal manner. In the 21st century, we should not be sitting down and looking at it as bystander. We should be in it as thickly as possible," Sinha said.

Making a strong pitch for delinking terrorism from religion, Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his ongoing trip to US asserted that a global response was required to effectively combat international terrorism propagated by outfits like Islamic State (IS).

Sinha said that India should be involved in all major global security and political issues as it is involved in economic issues.

PTI