Congress' Venugopal hits out at DoT over mandatory ‘Sanchar Saathi’ app: ‘Beyond unconstitutional’
Calling the Sanchar Sathi app “a dystopian tool to monitor every Indian,” Congress's Venogopal said that it is a means to watch over every movement of citizens.
Congress on Monday rejected directions of the Department of Telecommunications on the pre-installation of the Sanchar Saathi app in new mobile handsets as unconstitutional and demanded its immediate rollback.
Taking to social media platform X, Congress general secretary KC Venugopal said that the direction by DoT “is beyond unconstitutional," adding that the “Big Brother cannot watch us.”
He wrote that the right to privacy is an intrinsic part of the fundamental right to life and liberty, which is provided in Article 21 of the Constitution.
Calling the Sanchar Sathi app “a dystopian tool to monitor every Indian,” Venogopal said that it is a means to watch over every movement, interaction and decision of each citizen.
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He also alleged that the move is a part of "relentless assaults" on the Constitutional rights of Indian citizens, which will not be allowed to continue. “We reject this direction and demand its immediate rollback,” the Congress leader said.
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Along with this, Venogopal also shared the DoT direction under the Telecom Cyber Security Rules, 2024 (as amended), regarding the pre-installation of the Sanchar Saathi app in mobile handsets to check their genuineness.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on Monday mandated the pre-installation of the Sanchar Saathi app on all new mobile handsets manufactured or imported for sale in India.
The directive urged manufacturers to ensure that the Sanchar Sathi app was readily available and accessible to the end users from the start at the time of device setup, and that its functionalities are not disabled.
The portal, which was set up in May 2023, allows reporting and blocking of lost mobile phones and of malicious web links.
Along with this, it also helps in knowing the number of mobile connections in a user's name and allows users to check the trusted contact details of a bank or financial institution.
