New Delhi: Elon Musk on Saturday continued his extraordinary swipes at Indian industrialist Mukesh Ambani, sharing screenshots of media reports that alleged Reliance-funded firm helped boost BJP campaigns on social media and a Reliance-linked company made large political donations to the ruling party.
The latest post by Musk on X featured an Al Jazeera report from 2022 headlined “How a Reliance-funded firm boosts BJP’s campaigns on Facebook” and an archived Indian Express report from 2024 on Qwik Supply, which reported that the Reliance-linked firm donated Rs 385 crore to the BJP and Rs 25 crore to the Shiv Sena through electoral bonds.
The latest post comes amid Musk’s scathing criticism of Mukesh Ambani over a persistent delay in the launch of Starlink satellite broadband services in India.
Reliance has not publicly responded to Musk’s allegations, while the government has maintained that the country’s authorisation framework for telecom and satellite services is “fair and non-discriminatory” and that any suggestion that it was being applied selectively was “baseless and misconceived”.
At the India Mobile Congress this week, as Musk’s dramatic confrontations and swipes played out on X in the backdrop of India’s swanky annual showcase of its telecom prowess, Reliance Jio Infocomm Chairman Akash Ambani declined to comment on the ongoing debate over satellite communication services, saying the company was focused on delivering value to Indian consumers.
A few hours before he made the post, Musk on X addressed Mukesh Ambani as “Prime Minister Ambani” and accused him of protecting a monopoly. Musk wondered if Ambani would consider allowing his satellite internet service to compete with his entity in the country.
On Friday, Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia asserted that India does not permit monopolies in any sector, and that despite the buzz around one particular company, three players have received satcom licences and can start operations after meeting the security requirements and milestones.
Musk has alleged that powerful business interests are seeking to block his service to preserve their dominance in the Indian market. He said his Starlink was being blocked by certain oligarchs seeking to “maintain their monopolistic chokehold on the Indian people.”
“Dear Prime Minister Ambani, Please accept my humble apologies for not realising that you are the real boss of India. Naturally, you would prefer to maintain your monopolistic exploitation of the great people of India, but would you nonetheless consider allowing Starlink to compete?” he wrote.
Musk also said many areas of India have no internet access and the absence denies children education and small businesses the opportunity to sell their goods to a global market.
Starlink would change their lives for the better, the technocrat asserted.
Within minutes of that post late Friday evening, Musk wrote another, saying Starlink has proven to be essential in saving lives during natural disasters throughout the world, when all other communication systems failed. “So you would also be helping save men, women and children throughout India,” he added.
Scindia has said India doesn’t allow monopoly in any sector.
“Let me set the record straight. For us, the Department of Telecommunications, we are technology agnostic… Our job is to be able to provide the bouquet of services to every single customer. It is for the customer to choose in a free market which service he or she prefers, and within that service bouquet, which company’s service he or she prefers,” the Union minister said at a briefing at the India Mobile Congress here.
Scindia said three entities – Musk’s Starlink, Reliance Jio’s satellite venture Jio Satcom, Bharti-backed Eutelsat OneWeb – have already secured licences, while Amazon’s Project Kuiper has expressed interest and will need to follow the established procedure.
While there is a lot of conversation about one particular company, three have got satcom licences, he said.
“We are very clear on our stand. There are three parties that have got a licence; as and when the government decides the charge system on the revenue basis, that spectrum will be assigned to them, and as and when they individually fulfil the security conditions, they can start operations,” the minister said.
TRAI and the telecom department are close to a final decision on pricing regime for satcom spectrum, Scindia added.
The BJP leader also hit out at the Congress in the backdrop of Rahul Gandhi and Musk’s exchange on X. “As far as the Congress is concerned… I don’t think they themselves know whether they’re going left or right,” the former member of the party said.
He said the Congress initially had a problem with “a certain person getting a licence” and pointed out that “now they have a problem, and they’ve allied with that person in terms of why he’s not getting a licence.”
“So I don’t know whether they have clarity on where they’re going, but that is the case with the Congress, which is to be expected,” Scindia said.
Musk’s allegations came as India Mobile Congress (IMC) – a grand annual telecom event – unfolded in Delhi.
“Starlink is licensed in over 165 countries and has spent five years complying with every single law and requirement of the government of India, so why still no license?” Musk wrote in a post on X earlier.
