India's winning streak in elections to UN bodies demonstrates it is time for the country to become a permanent member of the Security Council and those who doubt this can no longer behave like "ostriches in sand", the Indian envoy to the world body has said.
Hailing India's crucial win in polls to the UN Board of Auditors on Friday, Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Asoke Mukerji said the victory is a "recognition of India's institutional depth."
India won the election to the UN Board of Auditors with its nominee, Comptroller and Auditor General Shashikant Sharma, garnering the maximum number of votes.
Sharma bagged 124 of the 186 ballots during the election held in the General Assembly's Fifth Committee on Administrative and Budgetary questions.
Mukerji said India's winning streak in crucial UN elections demonstrates that the country should now actually be sitting at the UN Security Council high table.
"It is a message that others who have a reason to doubt to see and understand that they cannot keep an idea, whose time has come, away from them forever. They cannot be ostriches in the sand," he told PTI.
Mukerji said apart from experience in traditional audit, India will bring to the table expertise in newer areas like environmental audit, business systems and IT audit.
"We look forward to a very productive tenure on the board," he said.
The impact of India's expertise in these areas will now be felt on the global scene, he added.
Sharma will serve a six-year term on the UN Board of Auditors starting July 1, 2014. The Board is the highest auditing body in the UN and comprises three members. India, which last sat on the board in 1993, will replace China as one of the members.
Separately, for the membership of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions, Devesh Uttam, First Secretary in India's Permanent Mission to the UN, was elected by acclamation.
India has had a successful track record of winning seats in key UN bodies in the past few years.
It was elected to the UN Joint Inspection Unit in 2011, defeating China in a direct fight for the lone seat from the Asia-Pacific region.
India also won seats in bodies like the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions, ECOSOC, Human Rights Council and the International Law Commission.
Last year, senior Supreme Court judge Dalveer Bhandari was elected to the International Court of Justice, winning an overwhelming number of votes in the General Assembly and Security Council election, which brought India back to the UN's principal judicial organ after a gap of two decades.
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