Sanchar Saathi Order - Good That The Centre Has Rescinded It
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By Our Editorial Team
First publised on 2025-12-05 14:32:56
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The India Commentary view
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The Union government's decision to withdraw the directive of Department of Telecommunications (DoT) forcing smartphone makers to pre-install the Sanchar Saathi app is welcome - but it raises a deeply unsettling question. If the Minister for Communications, Jyotiraditya Scindia, was so confident that "snooping is neither possible nor will it happen", why was the order issued in the first place, and why was it done so quietly? The retreat suggests that the government itself recognized how arbitrary, intrusive, and constitutionally indefensible the diktat was.
The DoT's now-scrapped circular made Sanchar Saathi undeletable - a permanent fixture in every handset. The later assurance that users "could delete it" was meaningless, because the text of the directive explicitly prohibited disabling or restricting the app. Indian users are familiar with the concept of digital debris - fragments of code and permissions that linger long after the outward deletion of an app.
The mystery only deepens when one realises that Sanchar Saathi's legitimate functions - blocking stolen phones, verifying IMEIs - are already available through the CEIR, a voluntary platform. This coordinated tightening of surveillance architecture cannot be dismissed as administrative overreach. It reflects a State increasingly impatient with constitutional limits.
Equally disturbing is the quietude of the public. Privacy may be a fundamental right, but it does not figure anywhere near the top of voters' priorities. This apathy emboldens the government to repeatedly test the boundaries of intrusion. The Digital Personal Data Protection framework, notified with much fanfare, still gives the State disproportionate access to personal data. Sanchar Saathi was merely the latest symptom of this expanding appetite for control.
There is also the economic folly. India is witnessing a smartphone manufacturing boom, led by global giants like Apple. This depends on predictability and regulatory sanity. Forcing manufacturers to embed a app that can be used for surveillance undermines ease of doing business and invites legal confrontation.
The government has stepped back this time. It must not be allowed to step forward again. India urgently needs a serious, collective conversation on privacy - not as an elite concern, but as the bedrock of citizenship. Until then, Big Brother will keep returning, each time with a more polished excuse.
