India mounted a forceful case for urgent reform of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), warning that the world body’s credibility and effectiveness were being eroded by an “archaic” structure frozen in the realities of the 1940s, even as it launched a sharp counterattack on Pakistan over cross-border terrorism.Addressing the UN Security Council Open Debate on “Upholding the Purposes and Principles of the UN Charter and Strengthening the UN-centered International System”, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Parvathaneni Harish, said the UN was facing growing questions over its legitimacy, efficacy and relevance amid rising geopolitical fragmentation and confrontation.“The UN Security Council must be a living instrument, not a fossil,” Harish said, calling for expansion of the permanent membership category to reflect contemporary geopolitical realities and alter the Council’s decision-making structure.Drawing a historical parallel, the Indian envoy said running today’s global governance architecture on a 1945-era framework was “akin to running advanced AI technologies on the 1945 version of the computer called the Electronic Numerical Integrator.”Harish noted that despite a mandated review conference under the UN Charter in 1955, no comprehensive reform had ever taken place except limited expansion in the number of elected UNSC members and ECOSOC seats decades ago.He argued that sacrifices made during World War II alone could not justify preserving an outdated power structure indefinitely.Recalling India’s role during the Second World War, Harish said over 2.5 million Indian soldiers had fought alongside Allied forces and more than 87,000 had laid down their lives.“This was not our war, but we paid dearly for it,” he said, adding that India’s participation as a founding member of the UN reflected its enduring commitment to peace and multilateralism despite colonial-era injustices.The Indian envoy also stressed the need to strengthen the UN General Assembly, describing it as the organisation’s only truly democratic organ where no country enjoyed disproportionate privileges.In a pointed rebuttal to Pakistan at the debate, Harish accused Islamabad of pursuing decades of cross-border aggression and sponsoring terrorism against India.“The use of cross-border terrorism by Pakistan and its doctrine of ‘bleeding India by a thousand cuts’ exposes its hollow rhetoric of commitment to the UN Charter,” he said.Harish asserted that India had every right to defend itself against terrorism and warned that Pakistan “will have to accept that there are consequences to its sponsorship of cross-border terrorism.”India also accused Pakistan of harnessing “terrorism, religious extremism and violent radicalism” since its creation and called on Islamabad to end support for all forms of terrorism in a “credible and irrevocable” manner.