"Why were they trying to create an Orwellian State?": Congress' Manish Tewari on Sanchar Saathi app

Tewari said the decision raised concerns of excessive surveillance and went against the Supreme Court's Puttaswamy judgement that upholds the right to privacy.

Speaking to ANI, Manish Tewari said, "The question is, why did they mandate it in the first place? What was the intention of the Government? Why were they trying to create an Orwellian State? Did they want to monitor the communication of each and every person in this country who has a mobile phone? So, therefore the decision of the Government in the first place was completely and absolutely opposed to the Puttaswamy judgment of the Supreme Court which guarantees every citizen and resident the right to privacy. Therefore, under those circumstances, they were compelled to take it back when they were realised they were wrong."

Congress MP Ashok Singh said the Centre was forced to withdraw its plan to mandate the Sanchar Saathi app after strong protests by Opposition parties, arguing that the move posed a serious risk to people's privacy and had to be rolled back.

"All Opposition parties protested in the interest of the people. As a result of that, the Government had to step back. This was a breach of privacy. So, it was essential to be rolled back. This will have to be taken back," Singh told ANI.

Earlier in the day, the Ministry of Communications revoked the mandatory pre-installation of the Sanchar Saathi app on mobile handsets imported or manufactured in India, days after proposing to mandate it.

The government has decided not to make the pre-installation mandatory for mobile manufacturers, citing Sanchar Saathi's increasing acceptance in India.

The Ministry said in a statement that the government had with the intent to provide access to cybersecurity to all citizens, had mandated the pre-installation of the Sanchar Saathi app on all smartphones.

The government maintains that the app is secure and purely meant to help citizens from bad actors in the cyber world.

"It helps in "Jan bhagidari" by all citizens in reporting on such bad actors and actions while protecting users themselves. There is no other function other than protecting the users in the app, and they can remove the app whenever they want. This has been clarified by the Government," the Ministry said. (ANI)