Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Member of Parliament Shashank Mani Tripathi on Tuesday strongly defended the Department of Telecommunications’ (DoT) decision to make the Sanchar Saathi app mandatory for preinstallation on mobile phones, asserting that the initiative would significantly enhance citizens’ sense of security.
The defence comes in the wake of widespread allegations that the Sanchar Saathi app is designed for surveillance and constitutes a serious violation of citizens’ privacy. Dismissing these concerns, the Deoria MP emphasised that the government is committed to ensuring every dimension of citizen protection through robust digital measures.
“This is a very important step. I’m from IIT, so I understand the types of cyber attacks that are taking place. I understand the types of data being stolen during external pilots. This communication app will enhance people’s sense of security. Our data won’t escape, and every aspect of citizen protection that should be ensured will be digitally protected. I welcome this,” ANI quoted Tripathi as saying.
Shashank Mani Tripathi further clarified that the app poses no risk to individual privacy and urged the country to accelerate the development and adoption of more home-grown applications.
“There’s no threat to privacy. All the investigations into this have been conducted with privacy in mind. The biggest threat to privacy comes from external apps, and we’ve been dealing with that for many years. We should adopt our indigenous apps. There is no threat to privacy; rather, we should move towards indigenous apps, even in digital,” he added.
Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Kiren Rijiju also came out in support of the government’s decision, accusing the opposition of “manufacturing issues” merely to disrupt parliamentary proceedings.
“They don’t need to find new issues and disturb the Parliament. All issues are important in their own right, but using them as a means to stall Parliament is not right... We will hold talks with opposition leaders. I am already in touch with them. We are not belittling their issues, but there are many issues in the country, not just one,” he said.
Also Read: Centre mandates Sanchar Saathi on all phones
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