May 04, 2026

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BREAKING THE DEADLOCK

ON the evening of April 17, a division bell rang through the new Lok Sabha, the same vaulted, peacock-themed chamber in which, 31 months earlier, amidst a thunderous ovation, the Narendra Modi government had passed the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam that reserved 33 per cent of seats in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies for women. This time, though, the mood was hostile. When the Speaker announced the count--298 ayes, 230 nays--the Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty-first Amendment) Bill had fallen short of the requisite two-thirds majority by more than 60 votes. It was the first time a Modi-era constitutional amendment had been defeated in a floor test, and the reverberations echoed well beyond the chamberSo, why did the Modi government go out on a limb knowing the odds were stacked against it? The ruling party appears to have wanted to strike several birds with one stone. One of them was to fast-track the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, 2023, as left to its normal course, the law would kick in no earlier than 2034. That is because the 2023 Act specifies that women's reservation will take effect only after a delimitation exercise was carried out on the basis of the first Census conducted after the Act was passed. The new amendment bill sought to compress that timeline by delinking implementation from any future Census. A separate bill was introduced to push through delimitation of constituencies, ostensibly to chalk out an expansion of the Lok Sabha to create extra room to accommodate a one-third quota painlesslyThe wager, observers concluded, was perceived as a win-win for the ruling BJP. It was betting that the Opposition would find it politically awkward to reject a bill tied to women's reservation. With women constituting nearly half the Indian electorate, a victory would give the BJP the edge needed for a fourth consecutive term in 2029. BJP sources say that Union home minister Amit Shah from February onwards had sought support from each of the key Opposition leaders to push through the bill and informed them that the government was sensitive about ensuring that southern states would not be impacted. The party believed that many of the Opposition parties were amenable and therefore it moved the amendment billBut, in Parliament, Opposition parties changed tack and opposed the amendment, charging the government with using women's reservation as a façade to hoodwink the nation. The real aim, the Congress claimed, was to complete delimitation before 2029, allowing the ruling party to redraw constituencies to its electoral advantage and avoid factoring

THE WAR ON SNOOPING EYES

For years, security experts have cried themselves hoarse over the rapid proliferation of surveillance cameras. Adversaries hacking internet-connected CCTVs (Closed Circuit Televisions) to gather caches of sensitive information is bad enough, but the ongoing war in the Middle East has revealed the more sinister uses such hacking can enable. Cameras--at traffic junctions, buildings and city streets--are being repurposed for target tracking and precision strikes. Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) allow militaries to rapidly analyse vast caches of footage, enabling precise identification of targets. Israel hacked Tehran's surveillance camera grid to track--every face and vehicle was tabulated over days to create a mosaic of daily routines-- and then assassinate Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other senior officials on February 28In India, the threat from CCTVs was brought home in late March, when police in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, dismantled a Pakistan-linked espionage ring that did more than hack existing cameras. Instead, operatives installed solar-powered CCTV units at sensitive locations in Delhi-NCR. These devices transmitted live footage to Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) handlers across the border. Investigators revealed that the network was tasked to expand the covert network in other Indian citiesIndeed, there are over three million CCTVs with weak technical features installed across the country--around half of them in government premises, including military compounds and high-security infrastructure--a massive security risk. Ninety per cent are made by Chinese firms like Hikvision and Dahua, which means there is but one beneficiary of alleged electronic espionage--BeijingWith India's apprehension turning into reality in the Middle East, New Delhi has finally made a decisive move. The government has banned CCTV cameras and associated hardware from Chinese manufacturers. From April 1, new certification requirements under the Union ministry of electronics and information technology's (MeitY) Standardisation Testing and Quality Certification (STQC) framework come into force, mandating that all CCTV products undergo testing and approval before they can be sold or deployed. The rules require devices to have tamper-proof enclosures and strong malware detection encryption so that they are free of vulnerabilities that could lead to remote access. The new rules stem from the requirements first issued by MeitY in April 2024. Manufacturers were given a two-year period to adapt, and over 500 CCTV models have already been certified and some installedSECURING VITAL ASSETS At a review meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in February, serious concerns were also raised about alleged Chinese attempts to snoop on India's national telecommunications infrastructure. The government is now establishing a mechanism to safeguard the country's telecom backbone, with quarterly coordination meetings mandated between the Department of Telecommunications, the Ministry of Defence and intelligence agenciesThe perceived threat to vital national infrastructure stems from a large cyber-espionage campaign in 2021 by Chinese state-linked groups. The operation targeted at least seven State Load Dispatch Centres (SLDCs) --facilities responsible for electricity dispatch and grid control--located close to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China in Ladakh. The attackers likely compromised Internet Protocol (IP) cameras commonly used in CCTV networks, along with internet-connected Digital Video Recorder (DVR) systems. The objective, it was assessed, was to gather intelligence on India's power infrastructure. Two separate Chinese hacking attempts on