New Delhi: BJP Tuesday accused the Congress of spreading “misinformation” about the Sanchar Saathi app, and said its purpose is to ensure people’s safety from fraud and other crimes, not to snoop on them.
BJP MP and national spokesperson Sambit Patra also reiterated the government’s clarification that users would be free to delete the app from their mobile devices if they do not want to use it.
Taking a dig at the Congress, Patra said, “I know who will delete it… ‘Chor ki dadhi mein tinka’ (a guilty conscience needs no accuser).”
“You know very well who they are. An FIR has also been filed against them. They have swindled Rs 5,000 crore. At present, they are out on bail,” Patra told a press conference at the BJP headquarters in a veiled reference to the National Herald case, in which Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are accused.
The Congress has alleged that the government’s directive on the Sanchar Saathi app smacks of dictatorship and infringes on the right to privacy of citizens.
Calling it a “snooping app”, the opposition party demanded its immediate rollback.
Amid the row over his ministry’s directive to smartphone makers to preload the state-run cybersecurity app on all new devices, Minister of Communications Jyotiraditya Scindia Tuesday said users are free to delete the Sanchar Saathi app, which will remain dormant till they register on it.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, however, alleged that the government’s move is yet another attempt by the BJP to strangulate the voice of the people and is akin to dictatorship.
Hitting back, Patra said, “Mr Kharge, it is not meant to strangulate people’s voice but to secure their voice, and their mobile phones, without which life is difficult today. We need to secure the device. That is why the government has brought this app.”
“You keep on spreading misinformation. But people know how to move on,” he added.
On Kharge’s charge that the government bulldozed the Income Tax laws, Patra took on the Gandhi family and said, “They will certainly have a problem with this. The Congress was evading taxes for so long. There is also a case against Rahul Gandhi.”
“Kharge saheb, there is no darkness. There are the high courts and the Supreme Court. Have you approached the court,” the BJP leader asked, hitting back at the Congress president over his allegation that RTI was “strangulated” by tweaking Section 8(1)(j) (of the Indian Right to Information Act, 2005) via the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023.
Patra also flayed Kharge over his “Pegasus scandal” charge, pointing out that the Supreme Court had already rejected the matter.
“Why didn’t Rahul Gandhi, who claimed his phone was bugged with the Pegasus spyware, submit his device for probe,” Patra asked.
Stating that the government does not want to indulge in “any kind of snooping” on people through the Sanchar Saathi app, Patra said, “The app cannot read your messages. It cannot listen to your calls, incoming or outgoing. Sanchar Saathi cannot reach or breach your personal data.”
“What is its work then? Its job is to provide security to the users, check fraud, track stolen mobiles, retrieve them and return them to their owners,” he added.
PTI