ONCE again, all parties agree that India needs to play a more assertive role in Mukherjee: "APEC membership has been frozen for a long time. But we are participating in three APEC working groups, trade, investment and tourism. We are a full dialogue partner in ASEAN. We also have had a very good response from other nations in our efforts to get a non-permanent seat and permanent seat in the Security Council, and the results of this will be seen in the October-November voting for the non-permanent members."
Yechuri, however, notes that entry into the Security Council without veto rights, as suggested by some western powers, would be meaningless. Bardhan is equally vehement about India playing a more assertive role in NAM, which needs to be realigned not only to face the post-Cold War realities, but also to give India a platform to stand up to the imperialist powers.
While its manifesto pledges to get India a berth in the Security Council, the BJP, however, feels that India "should not go begging for membership in any of these fora," but see that it is invited to join on its own merit. Says Mishra: "The moment these groupings realise that it would be in their own economic and political interests to invite India, one of the major untapped markets of the region, they will come to us. Why should we have to go begging?"