By Manish Chand, When India named Shashi Tharoor its first-ever candidate for the position of UN secretary general, the diplomat-author became more than an ambitious individual eyeing the world body's top post; he became an icon of the new can-do mood of the one-billion plus emerging Asian powerhouse.

In Tharoor - a seasoned UN bureaucrat for nearly three decades and author of eight books - India has found the ideal candidate for heading the UN with just the right mix of idealism and pragmatism and even a trace of romanticism.

In short, an Asian candidate - this year it's the turn of Asia to have its man in the UN hot seat - who can make a difference to the 60-year bureaucratic behemoth.

If change is what the UN needs and reforms are the answer to revive the UN, the 50-year-old Tharoor holds the promise of youth and renewal.

Surely, the UN of 1945 can't reflect the global realities of 2006, echoes Tharoor, and hence the crying need for change. Tharoor, who is now UN Under Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, is fond of quoting Mahatma Gandhi's simple but power-packed words: "You must be the change you wish to see in the world."

Tharoor's resume is indeed impressive and one that is likely to weigh with the powers-that-be who decide who gets to head the world body. A UN insider, he has nearly three decades of experience dealing with an eclectic range of sensitive issues including human rights, refugees, peacekeeping at the peak of the cold war and a privileged view which working in the office of the UNSG has given him.

During his visit to India last month - in his typically forthright manner, he took official leave for his campaign - he unveiled his vision of "a much more nimble, flexible and modern UN".

"(UN) management reform is one of our top priorities. We need a much more nimble, flexible and modern UN," Tharoor said. In an evocative phrase, he described himself as "India's national offering to the world".

"I am absolutely convinced that reforms are essential. I set about reforming my own department, which was in a bad shape and even shut down eight offices in the West. It's a model for the rest of the secretariat," Tharoor recalled.

An incorrigible optimist, Tharoor spoke eloquently about reasserting the primacy of the UN in global decision-making at a time when critics are prone to see it as a handmaiden of the US.

"In the globalising world of the 21st century, the UN remains the indispensable global forum to which every country belongs."

In the same breath, Tharoor wisely tempered his idealism with a pragmatic strategy on winning the support of the permanent five members of the UN - the US, Russia, China, Britain and France - who hold the key to winning the race for the top UN job.

"A future secretary general who sufficiently antagonises one of the P-5 members could again find himself in the situation of Boutros-Boutros Ghali (he was referring to former secretary general who incurred the wrath of the US and was consequently denied a second term)," he replied when asked how he would handle American pressure and recurrent interventions of the US in UN decision-making.

"No one who is not acceptable to the P-5 can become elected," he said.

Tharoor is confident of getting the support of the P-5 and presenting his credentials in such a manner that it does not attract the veto of the five permanent members.

The electoral college for the secretary-general consists of the five veto-wielding permanent members and 10 non-permanent members.

"An effective secretary general is the one who can work with all member nations, including the P-5. The practical reason that any UNSC has to cooperate with P-5 is that you can't achieve results without them," he added.

In his characteristic manner, the diplomat-writer quoted a Ghanaian proverb - a favourite of his mentor and Secretary General Kofi Annan: "You must never hit a man in the head when you have your fingers between his teeth."

And as this dapper silver-tongued diplomat moves from one world capital to another canvassing support for his candidature, he makes it a point to remind his influential interlocutors that the time has to come to close the gap between words and action. Be the change you want in the world, in other words.

Tharoor expertly orchestrated the theme of continuity and change recently when he launched his charm offensive at the 53-nation African Union summit in Gambia. He spoke in the two languages Africans appreciate - English and French - and his speech, replete with references to India-Africa bonhomie, was received with "overwhelming acclamation" in the words of Indian diplomats.

With less than six months to go before Annan's term expires, Tharoor is confident of winning the race to head the UN - an organisation with which he started his career in 1978 on the staff of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva.

And if that happens, India can justifiably soak in the pride of one of its own heading the world body at a time when its burgeoning economy - one of the world's five fastest - is hogging international spotlight like never before.

Will Tharoor's election as the next secretary general make India's case for a permanent seat on the UN high table stronger? Will it bring India extra weight in international diplomacy?

Tharoor has no clear answers for these overwhelming questions. All he can say is that he will try.

"An international civil servant has a duty to the UN charter and not to the national passport he holds," Tharoor says, delicately balancing national loyalty with a transcendent sense of duty that is as close to the Indian belief in dharma as you can get.