India, Dec. 3 -- A day after the Department of Telecom (DoT) mandated Sanchar Saathi application on all new mobile phones, Union Minister for Telecom Jyotiraditya Scindia clarified, "If you want, you can activate it; if you don't, then don't activate it... If you don't want Sanchar Sathi, you can delete it. It's not mandatory. It is optional." The minister was speaking outside the Parliament. His clarification came after the Opposition raised privacy concerns and fears of State surveillance. They also demanded the immediate rollback of this direction.

Scindia added that the app involves no spying or call monitoring and that the motive behind the direction was only to ensure wider access to a tool designed to curb cyber fraud. The DoT ord...