August 26, 1993 was a chaotic day in India's parliamentary history. It was the day the installation of close-circuit television (CCTV) cameras in Parliament for the first time was debated in the Rajya Sabha. The day witnessed vociferous protests by some honourable MPs who were aghast that cameras had been placed in the sacred precincts to put them all under watch. "I feel absolutely degraded that as a member of Parliament sitting in this august House or in the Central Hall, I am being constantly watched by some cops," said Yashwant Sinha, then a Janata Dal(S) MP and now the country's external affairs minister. "Are we living in a Nazi state?" asked another MP. "Big brother is watching," a third lawmaker had protested.

THREAT PERCEPTION: Security has been beefed up since the 12/13 attack

Last week, Vijay Goel, minister of state for youth affairs and sports, arrived at the Parliament House gate in a car that sported neither his ministry's sticker nor a Lok Sabha parking label. The minister was made to alight at the gate. And he quietly obliged.

Obviously, now, a decade later, there are no murmurs as a slew of new regulations is being put into effect to make the entire complex a far more safer place not just for the elected representatives but also for those who visit the high seat of democracy. The protests promptly faded after December 13, 2001-the day terrorists launched an attack on Parliament in which nine securitymen and other staffers were killed. "It was a guard monitoring the CCTV who alerted the security guards to close all the doors of Parliament House and saved the lives of 200-odd MPs on that fateful day," recalls former Lok Sabha Speaker Shivraj Patil, who got the CCTV cameras installed. Adds Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker P.M. Sayeed, chairman of the joint parliamentary committee (JPC) that is reviewing Parliament security: "We are overhauling the system. We will be strict, yet unobtrusive. Everything will be electronically monitored. Even frisking won't be necessary."

Now, MPs and ministers are listening and they are even doing away with some of their privileges just to ensure that the imposing edifice at the foot of Raisina Hill is not the target of another round of terrorist adventurism. Shortly after the 2001 attack, the JPC was set up to review and restructure the security apparatus. The JPC in turn left much of the nitty- gritty to the Home Ministry and the Intelligence Bureau (IB) which are coordinating the sorting out of the technical details. In March-April 2002, the JPC members, accompanied by Home Ministry officials, went on a five-nation tour of the US, UK, France, Germany and Holland. An MP insisted that the trip was undertaken to enable members to have a direct knowledge of the security systems in some major democracies of the world.

The MPs learnt one important lesson during the tour: security in our Parliament lacked nothing compared to what existed in the countries they visited. "It is just that we MPs have contempt for the rules," said an MP.

SAFETY FIRST: Upgrading the security of democracy's fortress

TALKATORA ROAD: One of the busiest thoroughfares in the capital, Talkatora Road, will soon be closed to traffic permanently. ROUTES: To avoid a repeat of the ease with which terrorists drove in December 2001, all entry points will have zigzag approach routes. FENCING: Work on powerfencing of the entire Parliament complex is expected to be completed by September 2003. LABELS: Instead of sticker labels, MPs' and ministers' cars will have chip embedded on windscreens.

Senior Home Ministry officials say the biggest threat to Parliament's security comes from MPs themselves. For, they are notorious for misusing car parking labels and carelessly handing out visitor passes. Senior security officials say new electronic car parking labels are being introduced because MPs have in recent times misused the parking labels issued by the Parliament Secretariat. There have even been cases of MPs making colour photocopies of the parking labels issued to them which subsequently found their way to the windshields of other cars. "It is we MPs who need to be policed first," says a JPC member. The new electronic labels will be issued before the winter session begins. The labels are basically chips attached to car windshields. Sensors at every entry point to the Parliament complex will identify legitimate cars coming to the Parliament complex. "We are setting up a system where if the MP is not in the car, it will be denied entry," says a Home Ministry official.

There are also plans to go in for security power fencing around the complex. The Home Ministry has opted for a perimeter protection system manufactured by a New Zealand-based company. The company already supplies security equipment to military bases in Europe, to prisons in Australia and the US. The fencing that is being installed around Parliament sends out active electric pulses all along the fence every 1.2 seconds. "The shocks are strong enough to incapacitate any intruder temporarily," a Home Ministry official says. The fencing work has begun from North Block, adjacent to Parliament House and is expected to be completed in about two months.

After the December 2001 attack made it clear that terrorists will stop at nothing, there were even suggestions for nuclear bunkers to be built though there is no unanimity on the issue within the JPC. "Bunkers are already there. They only need to be strengthened," said a JPC member, referring to the six existing basements. Shankar Roy Choudhury, former army chief, who is an independent member of the Rajya Sabha, while conceding that the system is competent enough, has made a case for deployment of armed guards in Parliament House.

A casualty of the increased security apparatus around Parliament will be one of the arterial roads that links west Delhi to central Delhi. According to plans, to convert Parliament and Parliament Annexe into a large complex the Talkatora Road, one of the busiest roads, will be closed to traffic in a few months. But in a city of traffic bottlenecks, the closure of one road is not expected to significantly add to the motorists' nightmare.