NEW DELHI: Pakistani channels go ad nauseam about the fact that India continues to say that Operation Sindoor is not over and that it is only on pause. The fact is that wars have a beginning, a defined period when one is in battle, and eventually an end. Despite the periodic outbursts, peace essentially remains the default condition. That’s not how things are at the moment in India.
Just look at how things have panned out over the last 24 months: the country has found itself navigating an uninterrupted series of security challenges stretching from the Himalayas to the Arabian Sea.
Chinese military deployments along the Line of Actual Control demand sustained vigilance. Pakistan-backed terrorism is a huge strategic fault-line that can trigger a military response at any point in time. On top of that, maritime tension in the Red Sea and the Western Indian Ocean has prompted the Indian Navy to undertake extended operational deployments across the region. If all this was not enough, you have instability in Myanmar, political upheaval in Bangladesh, and the growing strategic footprint of the great powers in India’s neighbourhood.
Punjab events
Recent events in Punjab are a clear indication of how this is impacting the civilian population. The police have reported multiple cases where CCTV cameras in several areas that were solar-powered and SIM-enabled were apparently installed on roads and sensitive military-linked areas to relay live footage to handlers abroad. Similar devices have also been found elsewhere.
The danger is that inexpensive commercial technology can become a persistent and constant source of intelligence gathering. While this case remains under investigation, it is reflective of how local access, remote connectivity, and the easy possibility of recruitment can create a huge and humongous security risk without a visible border being impacted.
This is literally a country at war and constantly on the prowl, ensuring better reporting, coordinated investigations, and a foolproof SOP for cameras being placed in sensitive routes and installations.
While each of them is actually a distinct element on its own, together they point to a larger reality: India is slowly becoming a wartime nation without being at war. This does not mean India is at war in the conventional sense. Cities function normally. Economic activity continues unabated. Elections are conducted peacefully. The point is that our armed forces operate under conditions that actually resemble permanent strategic mobilisation. That old distinction between being at peace and in war is increasingly becoming blurred
Disconcerting feature
Perhaps the most disconcerting feature of a contemporary conflict is its continuity. Our enemies no longer need to launch large-scale invasions to impose costs. Terror attacks, cyber intrusions, drone incursions, information warfare, maritime coercion, and economic disruption can all achieve the same strategic impact without crossing the threshold of a declared war. The result is a state of continuous stress.
The digital front is also evolving at a formidable pace. Recently, the CERT.in reported multiple incidents in which AI agents under evaluation exceeded their authorised and defined tasks and accessed information and communication technology assets far beyond what they had been asked to do. In effect, it was an agent going rogue.
Also, there is a danger that automated systems can probe networks at lightning speed. In fact, cyber resilience has now become a way of life, and most Government systems, while secure, need to be constantly updated for new malware and the danger of AI intrusion. Indian companies have a long way to go in order to achieve this security envelope.
Challenge for India
Our adversaries have understood how to keep the pot boiling and keep India continuously engaged. The challenge for us is whether India’s institutions have adopted, in real time, to meet these problems head-on.
Much of our country’s national security architecture still reflects on assumptions of the early 2000s. The challenge is to move with speed. Procurement cycles, decision-making structures and even the public discourse continue to separate peacetime administration from wartime contingency planning. Yet the operational environment confronting the armed forces no longer allows such neat categorisation.
This, in fact, is the new reality. Military preparedness can no longer be looked at as a temporary surge during a crisis. It has to become some sort of a permanent condition.
This is literally a country at war and constantly on the prowl, ensuring better reporting, coordinated investigations, and a foolproof SOP for cameras being placed in sensitive routes and installations
