Gordon Brown wants India to have a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. But what has he said about the plight of India's Dalits and tribals - 250 million people regarded by the caste system as "untouchable"? The Dalits are excluded from India's economic miracle, and exploited mercilessly - given the very worst jobs in society, denied education, enslaved, trafficked, subjected to violence, rape and abuse, and regarded as lower than animals. Caste discrimination is a new form of apartheid.
And what has Gordon said about India's foreign policy? India has been one of the Burmese regime's biggest allies - silent in the face of tyranny, and actively providing arms, military training and economic investment directly to the Generals in Burma. If India is to be a permanent member of the UNSC, it should not simply be another China - an irresponsible sponsor of thuggish genocidal regimes which blocks any international effort to bring change to such situations. If Brown wants India on the UNSC, he needs to help India change its foreign policy, live up to the democratic values it is based on as the world's largest democracy, and tackle the scandal of caste.
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