The opposition leaders weighed in on the clarification issued by Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on the Sanchar Saathi app. They levelled charges of surveillance on the central government after its confidential directive to pre-install the said app on new mobile handsets and push it through a software update on the ones sold.
Owing to the widespread backlash over privacy concerns, the Centre rolled back the pre-installation of the state-owned Sanchar Saathi app on all mobile phones in India on December 3. The government cited the surging demand for the application as a reason for its removal of the order.
The centre's directive dated November 28 to mobile companies such as Apple, Samsung, Vivo, Oppo, etc., flagged concerns of 'snooping' by the central government nationwide. The domain experts argued that Scindia's clarification issued in the aftermath does not hold until the written directive is withdrawn.