Day1 at the Saarang MUN 2011

The Indian Institute of Technology-Madras is undoubtedly one of the premier institutes in India.If you thought that IIT is all about academics,you have to just be a part of the annual cultural festival of IITM-SAARANG to know its other side.This Saarang promises to be as creative as ever by organising various spotlight events,one of which is the truly outstanding concept of simulating the United Nations.The Model United Nations aims to sensitize the youth about the world affairs and their responsibility towards promoting world peace.This year Saarang MUN 2011 saw young people from through out India come together to share and contribute their ideas.

The Saarang Model United Nations(MUN) 2011 was kicked off with fervor on the morning of 26thJanuary 2011 with a warm opening ceremony in the IC&SR Main Hall of IITM and was addressed by the Director Of IITM, The chief guest, Ms Anita Nair and Professor N.Govardhan apart from the student organizing committee of the MUN.

Ms.Anita Nair in her address to the MUNers emphasized on UN’s message to the youth:
“Youth have to come together and discuss global concerns and not be interested in only one’s nation” and stated that Dialogue and mutual understanding were imperative to get solutions to the current global issues.

The opening ceremony was succeeded by the chairs of the four committees-Security Council, Committee on terrorism, Human Rights Commission, Economic and Social Council discussing points of interest with the respective members on being asked to do so by the secretary general Ms.Vaishnavi Srivatsan.

What the delegates felt - Tailored by the International Press (without a sewing machine ;))

Session 1:
Security Council (Morning Session Of 26thJanuary, 2011)

The session of the security council began as the chair, Ms Shina Gulati rightly said it would, at 11.30 A.M. (11:27 A.M to be more precise;) ) .The Vice chair, Mr.Debatra Ganguly and the moderator Mr.Aruj Arora along with the chair constituted the executive committee. The Secretary General with her presence and participation in the proceedings along with the well-spoken, knowledgeable executive committee and the diplomatic, well-informed delegates took the session to a new level.

Even though the agenda of the security council is supposed to be an open one, the agenda was decided beforehand-one wonders why!? The agenda : “The Current Situation in Afghanistan-Pakistan and its implications on world security”. After the procedures, rules of the session and the order of the General Speakers list were announced by the chair, the proceedings were deemed to have begun.

The first motion passed during the moderated caucus(10 minutes discussion with 45 seconds per delegate, extended later )was on the topic “Narco Terrorism and its effects in Afghanistan” by the delegate of USA, supporting a point made in the speech given by the delegate of Germany. This triggered what can be termed diplomatically as a “healthy relation” between the U.S and the Germany where many instances were witnessed during the session where the latter agreed with the former either by seconding motions or thumping in appreciation.

A brief look at the main points made by the countries:

· Rehabilitating the farmers by growing other crops suited to the soil - opposed by many, thumped by many others.
· Regulate the use of opium-which is the main drug cultivated in Afghanistan-for medicinal purposes only. While few nations felt it was appropriate, yet others felt it was impractical.
· Recognize the Taliban’s involvement in the problem and deal with it.
· Propaganda to the people of afghan asking them not to support Taliban on the grounds that the opium farmers won’t get support from it once the Taliban has the much needed political power.

Watch the video on the summary of the first motion by the Vice Chair person:

Second Motion: “Alternate funding for terrorism in Afghanistan”

· Discussing the various sources of funding for Taliban.
A heated discussion among the delegates of China, USA & Germany then ensued on the issue of Iranian involvement in funding Taliban.
· To have strict regulations and curbs on the cross border goods facilitating prevention of exports. Aren't we reminded of onions here!?
· Involvement of North America, ISAF etc in promoting LTTE- This suggestion was acknowledged by the chair to be a fairly good one and we thought the delegate who proposed the resolution wanted to could reach to his collar and straighten it a bit !.
· Establishing or setting up a common fund under the NATO to curb terrorism.
· Establishing other means and ways to curb terrorism. Example: Education-proposed, incidentally by the delegate of India.

Surprisingly, during the Second motion, there were no Indo-Pak confrontations on any front, which, owing to popular history is surprising. Even more surprising is the fact that the chairperson did not deem the indo-pak issue important enough to be suggested to the council when it is one of the burning current issues in Pakistan .

The atmosphere, overall, was warm with electrifying speeches and motions on the floor however, there were times when the temper got the better of the delegates as displayed by the delegate of China when he was highly displeased with a certain co-delegate and did not hesitate to show it in his body language. Also we wondered why a few delegates were not sharing their views on the motions passed though their countries were being discussed. Hazarding a guess : We think it was because they were first timers and were shy or took the quote "silence is golden" too seriously or were overwhelmed by delegates of a few countries who have been intimidating on the global front as well. The developing countries hyped to be the “to- be” leaders of the world, the current leader of the world, the country that after the first atom bomb drop gave "the current leader" sleepless nights and the country that had the greatest dictator the world ever knew-if you know what we mean!

During the course of the proceedings, the executive committee had questions which were no doubt tricky and difficult to answer. That the almost cornered delegates answered the questions- sometimes equivocally, sometimes otherwise is commendable. But the delegates had to be reminded to think of innovative motions and to defer from discussing redundant topics by the executive council. On the whole it was a session filled with animated and "meaningful" discussions, expressions and impressions.

Session 2:

Counter Terrorism Committee (Afternoon Session-26th January,2011)

The afternoon session of the Counter Terrorism Committee began at 2.30 p.m.in the conference hall no.1 of the IC&SR. The Chair Mr. Tathagata Ghosh addressed the council and inquired of motions, if any.

The First motion passed was on the topic “Measures to address why youth is being recruited into terrorism”

Second motion: Role of the internet in radicalizing youth.
Points discussed:

· Internet is the main source of information which can be used in both right and wrong ways-so discretion on the part of countries is needed.
· Counter argument to the above: Financial assistance is needed to fund the internet infrastructure-as most youth do not have enough sources of funds, they would not use the internet.

Starting from this point of time, the council was in a state of utter chaos. To say that the members were too deeply engrossed in the session to mind their body language or the rules of the council would be an under statement. While the delegates of Iran, UK, India, Pakistan, Japan, France were doing a great job to support and defend their own countries :

1) They disregarded the basic tenet of UN policy mentioned by Ms.Anita Nair in the inaugural function-"dialogue and mutual understanding".
2)As diplomats representing their respective countries, they ought to do a good job of keeping their emotions under control especially in the presence of executive members like the chair, the vice-chair and the secretary general herself.

Delegates of India and Pakistan in a pensive mood

Third motion: Source of the financial assistance for terrorists
The council elaborated the definition of financial assistance and classified them into tangible or intangible assistance in the form of money, weapons, infrastructure.

· Lack of financial resources – reason for youth getting attracted to terrorism.
· Control the flow of certain “strategic” materials-what the speaker meant by strategic materials were those that should be controlled in order to achieve a particular end .There was ,we are sure, a better word to be used than “strategic” in this context.

An unmoderated caucus as requested by the delegates was approved by the executive committee for 20 minutes ,during which the members decided to bring up the topics of “Methods to curb

recruitments of youth into terrorism” and “Protecting Human rights while countering terrorism” in the moderated caucus.

While we congratulate the delegates for adopting and arriving on a consensus for taking forward a good motion, they also deserve commendation on the sheer number of different solutions proposed.

The delegates also, must-with respect to the souls of the poor press-talk in such a way that a witness to the motion be able to comprehend which speaker is actually speaking and what he is saying and also be provided with ear plugs to plug in when the delegates disagree with each other “emphatically”. Though outside its purview the press hopes the Human Rights Commission passes a motion in this regard on its behalf;)

Fourth Motion: Methods to curb recruitments of youth into terrorist outfits :

· All the nations facing the problem of terrorism must strengthen their economy which may eventually lead to reduction in unemployment and finally, terrorism.

Fifth Motion: Protecting Human rights while countering terrorism :

· Creating employment opportunities for the youth.
· State government has to take initiatives against terrorist groups.
· Demographic balance.-For those who don’t know what Demographic balance is, it means equal distribution in direct variation to the population.

The proceedings saw the president of the security council reforms visit the council and participate in the proceedings as a part of the delegation of Iraq. The USA and Iran specifically had a lot of questions posed to them and had to take corrections, clarifications and commands from the honorable president-he is an executive after all and commands enough respect to put across the point he wants to with his gesticulations and articulations. To be laconic, “just do it”!(may be Nike is his favorite brand;))

While the day1 of Saarang saw IITM sing itself down to exhilaration-thanks to kk-, the CTC sometimes argued, discussed and on yet others deliberated itself down to exhaustion. The committee however, brought out important points as mentioned above and the member nations’ different takes on one issue show the multi-pronged approach of the delegates-only they ought to take those which are relevant to the topic at hand.

In the present scenario of the world, where innocent people are being butchered in millions,

CTC is the hope of the world to reform it for billions.!

See what the Chair person of CTC has to say: