Daily Inspiration Quote by Atal Bihari Vajpayee

Legitimacy, Vajpayee implies, is not a charter or a flag; it is a shared belief that the UN is bigger than its most powerful members. The word "flows" does quiet work here, turning legitimacy into something organic rather than granted, something that can dry up if the source is poisoned. And the source, he argues, is "universal perception" - not universal agreement, not moral perfection, but the broad, lived sense that the institution is trying to do more than launder great-power agendas.

The subtext is a warning aimed at the Security Council era of post-Cold War triumphalism: if the UN looks like an instrument of "one country or a small group", it forfeits the one asset that makes even its weakest resolutions matter - the ability to convene, stigmatize, and authorize action in a way that nation-states acting alone cannot. Vajpayee, leading a rising India that was both skeptical of Western dominance and invested in multilateral stature, is defending a UN that serves as a counterweight to unipolar decision-making.

This is also a strategically idealistic argument. By rooting the UN's authority in perception, he acknowledges how fragile multilateral credibility is: humanitarian mandates can read as selective, sanctions can feel punitive, interventions can look like regime change with a blue logo. Vajpayee is making the case that the UN survives not by power, but by restraint - by appearing to discipline power, not amplify it.