New Delhi: Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra Tuesday called the Centre’s Sanchar Saathi cybersecurity app a tool for “snooping” on citizens’ mobile phones, describing it as a step towards turning India into a dictatorship.
Her remarks came a day after the Ministry of Communications directed smartphone manufacturers to pre-install the app on all devices to be sold within the next three months.
“Sanchar Saathi is a snooping app, and clearly it’s ridiculous. Citizens have the right to privacy. Everyone must have the right to send messages to family and friends without the government looking at everything,” Vadra told reporters outside Parliament House.
In addition to Opposition leaders, privacy advocates have also raised concerns about the government’s directive requiring mobile manufacturers to ensure that the app “is readily visible and accessible to end users at the time of first use or device setup and that its functionalities are not disabled or restricted.”
This was widely interpreted as an instruction that the app would be non-removable. However, Union Minister for Communications Jyotiraditya Scindia clarified on Tuesday that users would have the option to activate the app only if they chose to, and would also be allowed to delete it.
“This app does not enable snooping or call monitoring. You can activate or deactivate it as per your wish… If you don’t want Sanchar Saathi, you can delete it. It is optional… It is about customer protection. I want to clear all misconceptions… It is our duty to introduce this app to everyone. Keeping it on their devices or not is up up to the user… It can be deleted from the mobile phone just like any other app…” Scindia said.
#WATCH | Delhi | On the debate around Sanchar Saathi app, Union Minister for Communications Jyotiraditya Scindia says, "When the opposition has no issues, and they are trying to find some, we cannot help them. Our duty is to help the consumers and ensure their safety. The Sanchar… https://t.co/Kr3juNrGFq pic.twitter.com/npwm9R1Kf2
— ANI (@ANI) December 2, 2025
Speaking before Scindia’s clarification, Vadra said that while cybersecurity measures are necessary, they do not give the government a licence to intrude into citizens’ private lives.
“There’s a very fine line between reporting fraud and monitoring what every citizen is doing on their phone. That’s not how it should work. There should be an effective system to report fraud. We’ve discussed this at great length, there’s a need for cybersecurity, but that doesn’t mean you get an excuse to enter every citizen’s phone. I don’t think any citizen would be happy,” she said.
CPI(M) Rajya Sabha MP John Brittas also criticised the move, invoking the Pegasus spyware controversy. He further questioned the status of the CERT-In (Indian Computer Emergency Response Team) probe into claims made by several Opposition leaders in 2023 that they had received warnings from Apple about “state-sponsored attacks” on their devices.
“Has anyone heard about the outcome of CERT-In’s probe into state-sponsored iPhone hacks? Questions asked in Parliament on this were continuously disallowed… Next step, obviously: Ankle monitors, collars and brain implants for 1.4 billion people. Only then will the government finally know what we really think and do,” Brittas wrote on X.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
Also read: Make Sanchar Saathi removable. Good intentions don’t excuse State overreach