The user will have the option to keep or delete the app from their smartphones, the minister says. However, the directives to manufacturers and importers narrates a different story. Especially with ‘software updates’ push.
Published Dec 02, 2025 | 2:49 PM ⚊ Updated Dec 02, 2025 | 2:53 PM
Union Minister for Communication Jyotiraditya Scindia said phone users can choose either to keep the app or uninstall it from their devices.
Synopsis: Minister for Communications Jyothiraditya Scindia’s statement on Tuesday contradicted DoT’s day-ago directive to phone manufacturers that the app’s functionalities should not be disabled or restricted.
Even as the Sanchar Saathi security app sparked waves of protest inside and outside Parliament, Union Minister for Communications Jyothiraditya Scindia on Tuesday, 2 December, claimed that keeping the app on one’s phone is optional.
The user will have the option to keep or delete the app from their smartphones, the minister told reporters outside Parliament. The statement however does not allow for consent for installing the app in the first place.
“It (the app) is optional,” Scindia said. “It is our duty to introduce this app to everyone. Keeping it in their devices or not is up to the user,” he added.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had on Monday directed smartphone manufacturers in India to preload the app, developed by the government and launched in January, on all devices. The directive also said the app should be non-removable. The department also asked manufacturers to install the app in devices already in use through a software update.
Scindia’s statement on Tuesday went against the DoT directive that the functionalities of the app should not be disabled or restricted. Moreover, the government has asked manufacturers and importers to also push the app in the form of software updates in existing phones. The directive takes away the power of choice and consent from users in installing the app.
DoT said the move was to safeguard the citizens from buying non-genuine handsets, enabling easy reporting of suspected misuse of telecom resources and to increase the effectiveness of the Sanchar Saathi initiative. It asked companies to ensure compliance within 90 days.
Citizens noted that the app has full access to all data in the device and claimed that it could be used to “spy” on the users. While other apps can also access similar data, they do so with the user’s permission and awareness.
However, since the Sanchar Saathi app would become unremovable — as said earlier — it raised the question of unauthorised data access.
The issue reached Parliament on Tuesday, with Congress member Renuka Chowdhury filing an adjournment motion in the Rajya Sabha, seeking to discuss Sanchar Saathi by suspending other businesses.
Other Opposition leaders, too, condemned the government’s move to “snoop” on ordinary citizens.
