Former Union Minister and career diplomat Shashi Tharoor today suggested that India should be a "little more outspoken" at the United Nations "as we have been on the Bucha tragedy". While the country has a "duty" to look to its own interests, on balance is a permanent seat in the UN Security Council, to which New Delhi has been aspiring for long, he pointed out. "We mustn't be a state whose silence is taken for granted... I think we should be a state whose good opinion people are anxious to have. And they will only be anxious to have it if there is fear that once in a while, we will call them out when they're falling short of standards," he told NDTV in an exclusive interview this evening.
"Don't forget, we're a country that has been clamouring for a seat, a permanent seat on the Security Council. Clearly, if we are not cooperative, stand on any issue, the world can turn round," he added.