The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Monday rebutted Congress’s allegations of “censorship”, clarifying that it had not received any application pertaining to sending SMSes to the party’s Maharashtra cadre.
The regulator stressed that it does not even deal with approvals of individual SMS templates.
“No application was received by #TRAI for sending SMS to a political party's Maharashtra cadre on how the 2024 Assembly election was ‘stolen’,” TRAI said on X without naming Congress.
It added that the application was submitted to one of the service providers, who rejected it.
“TRAI was at no stage involved in this process. In fact, TRAI does not deal with approval of individual message templates,” the regulator clarified, tagging a screenshot that showed the rejection by service provider STPL.
“As per the photo, it is clear that it was rejected by the service provider, STPL,” it wrote in its post with the hashtag ‘#FactCheck’.
On Sunday, Congress accused TRAI of blocking its bid to send SMSes carrying the link of a YouTube documentary titled “How the MH 2024 election was stolen”. The party said the request had been rejected on the grounds that it was “content related to protest”.
Congress’s data analytics department chairman Praveen Chakravarty, said that the rejection reflected a wider conspiracy to suppress the issue.
“How is there such perfect synchronisation between home ministry, election commission & telecom regulator to suppress? Does one need more telltale signs of guilt of Maharashtra election fraud than such coordinated moves by various arms of the government to suppress & hide information?” he said on X.
He claimed the party had followed procedure by filing an application with TRAI for approval but was denied permission on the basis that the content was “protest related”.
“The Congress wanted to send SMSes to its Maharashtra cadre of the link to the YouTube documentary 'How the MH 2024 election was stolen',” Chakravarty said.
Congress MP Manickam Tagore called the episode “ridiculous”. Tagore wrote on X, “When the Congress tried to send a simple SMS with this link, TRAI rejected permission, calling it 'protest content'. Who controls this censorship chain? Amit Shah, Ashwini Vaishnav, Gnaneshwar (Kumar).”
He further alleged a coordinated cover-up, saying, “home ministry surveillance. railways/telecom ministry blocks communication. Election commission silent spectator. One coordinated machine to hide the truth of Maharashtra 2024 fraud. Amit bhai, if Maharashtra elections weren't stolen, why are you so scared of a YouTube link?”
Tagore also questioned the regulator’s neutrality. “..since when did TRAI become the BJP's IT Cell? Suppressing SMS won't suppress truth. Blocking Congress workers won't block democracy. The more you censor, the louder people will ask: What exactly are you hiding about the Maharashtra 2024 elections?” he said tagging minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.