Centre’s Sanchar Saathi Directive to phone makers stirs big political row

A massive political row has erupted over the Centre's direction to mobile phone manufacturers to install the Sanchar Saathi mobile app in all handsets manufactured or imported in India. While according to the government, the move aims to protect citizens from cyber fraud and can help recover lost phones, the Congress and other Opposition parties have alleged that this is a step towards state surveillance and demanded the immediate rollback of this direction.

A digital safety initiative of the Centre, Sanchar Saathi provides multiple citizen-centric services through a mobile app and its web portal. These services include Chakshu, which helps phone users report suspected cyber fraud.

According to the Sanchar Sathi website, "Such proactive reporting of suspected fraud communication helps (the) Department of Telecommunications in (the) prevention of misuse of telecom resources for cyber-crime, financial frauds etc."

Chakshu can also be used to report commercial spam calls. The Sanchar Saathi website also says that Chakshu enables people to report malicious web links and fraudulent communications. These include phishing links and device cloning attempts and other malware delivered through SMS, RCS, iMessage and social media platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram.

The Department of Telecommunications, which comes under the Ministry of Communications helmed by Jyotiraditya Scindia, has directed mobile phone manufacturers to ensure that the Sanchar Saathi app is pre-installed on all mobile handsets manufactured or imported in India within 90 days, starting November 28.

The Centre's direction to phonemakers has however, drawn a sharp response from the Opposition.

Senior Congress leader KC Venugopal has said the move is "beyond unconstitutional". "Big Brother cannot watch us. The Right to Privacy is an intrinsic part of the fundamental right to life and liberty, enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution," he said on X. "A pre-loaded government app that cannot be uninstalled is a dystopian tool to monitor every Indian. It is a means to watch over every movement, interaction and decision of each citizen. We reject this Direction and demand an immediate rollback," he has said.