Big Row Over Centre's Sanchar Saathi Directive To Phonemakers

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 the government has said 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.

What Is Sanchar Saathi

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. "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," the Sanchar Sathi website says. Chakshu can also be used to report commercial spam calls.

According to the Sanchar Saathi website, Chakshu also 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.

What Has Centre Told Phonemakers

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.

"Ensure that the pre-installed Sanchar Saathi application is readily visible and accessible to the end users at the time of first use or device setup and that its functionalities are not disabled or restricted," the notification says.

For phones that have already been manufactured, the phone companies have been asked to push the app through software updates. The Centre has warned that failure to comply with these directions shall attract action.

Opposition Hits Out

The Centre's direction to phonemakers has 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.

Priyanka Chaturvedi, Rajya Sabha MP from Shiv Sena (UBT), said the move is nothing but "another BIG BOSS surveillance moment". "Such shady ways to get into individual phones will be protested and opposed & if the IT Ministry thinks that instead of creating robust redressal systems it will create surveillance systems then it should be ready for a pushback," she said.

How Phonemakers May React

According to a Reuters report, the government's mandate may spark a tussle with Apple, which has opposed such directions in the past, citing privacy and security risks. Apple, Samsung, and Xiaomi did not respond to Reuters queries, nor did the Communications Ministry.

Two industry sources, speaking to Reuters on the condition of anonymity, said the government did not consult the phone manufacturers before the order was issued. According to the Sanchar Saathi website, the app has been used to block 42 lakh stolen phones and helped in the recovery of 26 lakh phones. The website says the app has clocked over 1 crore downloads on Android phones and nearly 10 lakh on iOS.