Rajeev Chandrasekhar on lending app ban: ‘No decision that govt takes is geography-based’

Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar.

Two weeks after scores of lending platforms were banned on directions of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY)which were flagged for alleged Chinese links, Minister of State for MeitY Rajeev Chandrasekhar told Moneycontrol that no decision the government takes is based on geography.

The apps that are taken down are purely through the prism of user harm, security, or national sovereignty links and they are evaluated by different ministries, according to the minister.

“These applications were evaluated and as is the normal course, they all have the right to appeal. If certain applications were taken down because of some infirmities, they are always allowed to appeal once those infirmities are cured. And that is a process that the government of India has always undertaken and will continue,” Chandrasekhar told Moneycontrol in an interview.

Orders had been given to block over 138 betting apps and 94 lending apps which included Kissht, LazyPay, and Ola Avail Finance.

Later, the ban on Kissht, LazyPay, Buddy Loan, Faircent, and CashTM was revoked. Blocking orders had been issued on an urgent and emergency basis under Section 69A of the IT Act, which governs the power to issue directors for blocking public access of any information through a computer resource. It allows the government to issue blocking orders to ISPs, search engines and others.

Under the Act, the Union government or any other specially authorised officer can issue blocking orders under specific grounds such as the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of the state, etc.

The blocking orders were issued on an 'urgent' and 'emergency' basis under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act 2000.

MeitY Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had earlier termed it a national security issue.

Earlier this month, PhonePe co-founder Sameer Nigam told Moneycontrol said there is a rhyme and reason why the loan app bans are happening as citizens have been complaining about Chinese lending apps.

“There is something that would have triggered this, some major crossing-the-line affair that would have caused this and that’s why Meity acted on it at this scale,” Nigam said.

“See, there is money laundering happening with gambling apps. I think the method adopted for solving, needs work…the governments have pressure everywhere to try and adopt new laws at breakneck speed and when they do that or introduce regulations then the entire industry is upset,” Nigam added.