Thread by @ShashiTharoor

Since my book #NehruTheInventionOfIndia is being cited by the BJP, let's have some context here:
1. China was an original Permanent Member of the Security Council from the signing of the @UN Charter in 1945.
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2. After the Communist takeover of China in 1949, the seat continued to be held by the ousted Govt of Chiang Kai-Shek based in Taiwan, which called itself the Republic of China. Nehru rightly felt that this arrangement lacked credibility & that a tiny island state could not be...

...a Permanent Member with veto power on the Council.
3. Nehru therefore called on the other Permanent Members to admit Communist China (PRC) to the @UN & give it the Permanent seat held by Taiwan.
4. US understood the objection to RoC but was unwilling to admit the Communist PRC

5. In this context it was suggested that India take over the Chinese permanent seat. Nehru felt this was wrong & would compound one injustice to China with another. He said the RoC seat should be given to PRC & India should one day get a permanent seat in its own right.

6. Remember that India could not have replaced China on the Security Council without an amendment to the @UN Charter. Such an amendment could not have passed over the USSR's veto, which at the time (well before the Sino-Soviet split) it would have exercised.

7. So Nehru did not "give the Indian permanent seat to China". There was no Indian seat to give & it was far from certain the US idea would have worked.
8. The BJP prefers to fight over the past because they have failed India in the present & can offer no hope for the future.

So a simple request to the BJP: try and emulate @INCIndia in working for the future. Stop arguing about the past.