‘Sanchar Saathi cannot read your messages, cannot listen to your calls’: BJP reacts to Opposition’s allegations of snooping

At a press conference in Delhi, Patra said, “Does the government want to snoop on you through Sanchar Saathi? No, no, no. The government does not want to engage in any snooping… This app cannot read your messages, cannot listen to your calls — either the ones you receive or the ones that you make. Sanchar Saathi cannot access your personal data,” Patra said.

After the Centre asked smartphone companies in India to preinstall Sanchar Saathi, a state-developed cybersecurity application that allows users to report fraudulent calls and messages and stolen mobile phones, the Congress levelled allegations of snooping and surveillance.

Speaking to reporters outside the Parliament building, Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said, “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.”

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge alleged that the app is yet another addition to the “long list of attempts by the BJP to strangulate the voice of the people”.

“Modi Govt’s unilateral directions to preload this app without taking into confidence various stakeholders and citizens is akin to dictatorship. Why does the Govt want to know what citizens talk with their family and friends?” he asked in a post on X, adding, “Democracy perishes. Dystopian era flourishes.”

He added, “Snooping, surveilling, scanning and peeping to confiscate, control, command and monetise citizen’s rights is the hallmark of BJP’s tyrannical regime” he alleged, adding that the Income Tax laws had been “bulldozed to turn our digital lives into a 24×7 monitoring zone” without consent. He also said the RTI Act had been “strangulated” and the “Pegasus scandal proved…Opposition leaders, judges, journalists, even Union Ministers were snooped (upon)”.

Seeking to underscore that the app’s objective is to provide security, Patra said it also aims to prevent digital fraud. “It is to track lost or stolen mobile phones and return them to their rightful owners…sorry, Mr Kharge…the ‘S’ is not for strangulation but for security. To secure the voice of the people,” he said.

What is Sanchar Saathi app?

Currently, Sanchar Saathi is accessible as both a mobile application and a website. Its use is optional as of now, according to Telecom Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia.

Sanchar Saathi offers various facilities, such as blocking a stolen phone, checking mobile connections in your name, and reporting suspected fraud via the Chakshu option. When someone attempts to use a blocked mobile phone, a trace is generated, and the phone can be easily unblocked through the app or portal once it is found.

The application is available for download on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. It enables tracking and blocking lost or stolen phones anywhere in the country using their International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) numbers. The IMEI, a unique 15-digit code, enables phone companies and mobile networks to identify and authenticate devices.

“If you want to delete the app, you can, it is not mandatory. For instance, if you don’t want to use the app, don’t register for it, it will stay dormant, and delete it if you want to… Every citizen in the country does not know that this app exists to protect them from digital frauds and theft, and it is our responsibility to make the app available to everyone,” Scindia said Tuesday after criticism over the mandate to pre-install the app.