‘Unfulfilled promises, digital exclusion of marginalised’

New Delhi: With the Modi government hailing Digital India as a people’s movement that democratised technology in 10 years, the Congress on Tuesday claimed the fine print of its “lofty claims” is marred by unfulfilled promises, digital exclusion of the marginalised, hurting privacy and weakening transparency.

Digital India is a flagship programme of the government launched on July 1, 2015, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the vision to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy.

Questioning the government’s claims of the success of the initiative that completed 10 years, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge cited data like villages and schools that are yet to get broadband connectivity, the rising debt of state-owned telecom companies MTNL and BSNL and a surge in cyber crimes.

At the same time, the Opposition party sought to take credit for laying the foundation of several pathbreaking initiatives like Aadhaar and UPI during its rule.

“The fine print of Modi Govt’s lofty claims of ‘Digital India’ is marred by unfulfilled promises and false claims,” Kharge said in a post on X.

As of 26th June 2025, under the BharatNet project, a total of 6.55 lakh villages were supposed to be targeted for broadband connectivity, but out of these, 4.53 lakh villages, i.e. 65 per cent of them are yet to be covered, he claimed.

“The project’s deadline has been revised at least 8 times in 11 years. A meagre 0.73 per cent (766) Gram Panchayats currently have active Wi-Fi services. When the private players are opting for 5G, BSNL has not yet completed its target of deploying 1 lakh 4G towers. One-third towers left to be installed,” the Congress chief said.

Even after receiving three revival packages worth over Rs 3 lakh crore -- Rs 69,000 crore in 2019, Rs 1.64 lakh crore in 2022, and Rs 89,047 crore in 2023 -- it still lags behind private players, Kharge said.