‘Can be useful if voluntary’: Shashi Tharoor reacts to Centre's directive on Sanchar Saathi app
Govt has directed manufacturers and importers of mobile phones to ensure that its fraud reporting app Sanchar Saathi is pre-installed in all new devices.
On Department of Telecom directions to pre-install the Sanchar Saathi App on mobile handsets, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor cited “common sense” to state that “these apps can be useful provided they are voluntary”.
The Department of Telecom (DoT) directed manufacturers and importers of mobile handsets to ensure that its fraud reporting app Sanchar Saathi is pre-installed in all new devices within 90 days.
The DoT directive has drawn criticism from the Opposition which has raised "snooping" fears, concerns that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led central government has addressed and dismissed.
Reacting to the development, Shashi Tharoor said on Tuesday, “Common sense tells me that these apps can be useful provided they are voluntary. Everyone who needs them should be able to download them.”
He, however, also said making anything compulsory in a democracy “is troubling”.
"I need to look more into the logic of the government. The government should explain everything to the public instead of just passing an order via media reports. We need to have a discussion where the government reports the idea behind the decision…," Shashi Tharoor said, speaking to reporters in Parliament complex amid Winter Session.
Addressing the concerns flagged by Opposition over Sanchar Saathi app, Union minister for communications Jyotiraditya Scindia on Tuesday clarified that the application can be deleted by a user from their device.
“If you don't want Sanchar Saathi, you can delete it. It is optional,” Scindia told news agency ANI.
“It is our duty to introduce this app to everyone. Keeping it in their devices or not, is up to the user,” he said.
What Congress said
The Congress on Tuesday said the government's directive on the Sanchar Saathi App smacks of dictatorship and infringes on the right to privacy of citizens.
Calling it a "snooping app", Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra demanded its immediate rollback on party's behalf.
"The Sanchar Saathi is a snooping app, and clearly it is ridiculous. Citizens have the right to privacy. Everyone must have the right to privacy to send messages to family and friends without the government looking at everything," PTI news agency quoted Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra telling reporters.
She said the government is turning the country into a "dictatorship" and they are refusing to talk about anything and not allowing a discussion on anything and that is why Parliament is not functioning.
"It's not just snooping on the telephone. They're turning this country into a dictatorship in every form. Parliament isn't functioning because the government is refusing to discuss anything. It is very easy to blame the Opposition, but they're not allowing any discussion on anything, and that's not democracy," she said.
Priyanka Gandhi added that a healthy democracy demands discussion, and everybody has different views, and you hear them out.
