New Delhi: The Congress on Tuesday said 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 party demanded its immediate rollback. The Department of Telecom (DoT) has directed manufacturers and importers of mobile handsets to ensure that its fraud reporting app Sanchar Saathi is pre-installed in all new devices within 90 days.
"The Sanchar Saathi is a snooping app, and clearly it is ridiculous. Citizens have the right to privacy. Everyone must have the right to privacy to send messages to family and friends without the government looking at everything," Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra told reporters.
She said the government is turning the country into a "dictatorship" and they are refusing to talk about anything and not allowing a discussion on anything and that is why Parliament is not functioning.
"It's not just snooping on the telephone. They're turning this country into a dictatorship in every form. Parliament isn't functioning because the government is refusing to discuss anything. It is very easy to blame the Opposition, but they're not allowing any discussion on anything, and that's not democracy," she said, adding that a healthy democracy demands discussion, and everybody has different views, and you hear them out.
Vadra said there is a very fine line between reporting fraud and seeing what every citizen of India is doing on their phone.
"That's not how it should work. There should be an effective system to report fraud. We've discussed this at great length in terms of cyber security. There's a need for cyber security, but that doesn't mean it gives you an excuse to go into every citizen's phone. I don't think any citizen would be happy," the Congress leader said.
Flaying the move, Congress general secretary Randeep Surjewala said, "India has now become a 'surveillance state'.