New Delhi: During the Rajya Sabha Secretariat’s transition to a fully digital platform last year, its second senior-most official, while acknowledging that the move would enhance efficiency, cautioned that it could also expose the Upper House to “grave and unprecedented risks” such as state-sponsored cyber espionage and manipulation of legislative data, posing a direct threat to national security.
Rajya Sabha Secretary General PC Mody, in an internal communication circulated to the Secretariat, including the Chairman, in July 2025, said “the Rajya Sabha is transitioning to a comprehensive digital platform, namely the Sampurna Digital Sansad (SDS), for all its operations, including legislative business, committee proceedings and ancillary activities”.
However, in the same communication, Mody warned that “this complete digital dependency, while enhancing efficiency, exposes the Rajya Sabha to grave and unprecedented risks, including but not limited to state-sponsored cyber espionage, manipulation of legislative data, sabotage of Parliamentary workflows, and the compromise of privileged communications, thereby posing a direct threat to the integrity of the legislative process and the national security of India”.
He further cautioned that: “With the operationalisation of the SDS, the digital platform itself becomes the repository vehicle and an inseparable extension of the proceedings of the House, rendering any compromise of the said platform a direct compromise of the proceedings of the Rajya Sabha.”
The SDS platform became operational in July 2025 and contains the entire database of the Rajya Sabha.
According to the communication, which was shared with all officials and reviewed by The Tribune, the Rajya Sabha Chairman declared the platform an extension of the privileged proceedings of the House, constituting the authoritative digital record and operational space for all parliamentary functions.
