First posted on Instagram · @profilopolitics
Elon Musk has stopped hinting and named his target. On Thursday, the SpaceX chief posted on X that 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?" Then the question that set off the row: "Is Ambani the real boss of India?"
Watch: India Today Global on Musk's "Is Ambani the real boss of India?" post and New Delhi's rejection of his blocking claims.
The naming of Mukesh Ambani was an escalation. A day earlier, on Wednesday, Musk had accused unnamed "oligarchs" of blocking Starlink's launch in India to maintain what he called their "monopolistic chokehold" on the country. "Unfortunately, we are being blocked by certain oligarchs in order to maintain their monopolistic chokehold on the Indian people. You can guess who they are," he wrote. "This is a crime against the people of India!" He offered no evidence for the claim, and pointed at no one by name — until Thursday, when he pointed at the chairman of Reliance Industries.
India's government answered back the same week. On Friday, telecom minister Jyotiraditya Scindia told a media briefing that "India doesn't permit a monopoly in any sector," responding directly to Musk's remarks. The Ministry of Communications said its regulatory framework for satellite communications is "fair and non-discriminatory," and that Starlink and the two other licensed satellite operators — Reliance's Jio Satellite Communications and Bharti-backed Eutelsat OneWeb — are all at "broadly the same regulatory stage." All three are going through security assessments that have to finish before anyone gets spectrum. The government called suggestions of an unfair or discriminatory process "baseless and misconceived." Reliance Jio did not respond to requests for comment on Musk's remarks.
The fight has already spilled into Indian politics. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition, replied to Musk's post: "Welcome to India, Elon. Wait till you discover the other guy" — a swipe widely read as a reference to Gautam Adani, the other billionaire the opposition accuses of closeness to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government. Musk replied: "Thank you, Rahul. This is indeed troubling." What started as a licensing dispute is now a public argument about who really calls the shots in New Delhi.
Ambani's camp, meanwhile, answered with hardware instead of words. At the India Mobile Congress 2026 in New Delhi this week, Reliance Jio unveiled a proposal to deploy around 1,600 low Earth orbit satellites and build 23 ground stations across India under the banner of "Sovereign Satellite Connectivity" — a network meant to take internet to remote villages, islands, and border areas. Starlink's own vice president of business operations, Lauren Dreyer, appeared at the same conference and said, "We stand ready to serve India," noting the company already has more than 20 gateway sites and hundreds of antennas on the ground in the country.
The backlog behind all of this is real. SpaceX first tried to bring Starlink to India in 2021 and had to refund customer preorders in early 2022 after the government said it was selling a service it had no license for. The two sides have also fought over how satellite spectrum should be handed out: Starlink wanted it assigned administratively, Jio wanted an auction that would have made entry more expensive — and India ultimately sided with Musk's preferred approach. Even so, more than five years in, Starlink has key approvals and distribution partnerships with both Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel signed last year, but no commercial launch. Jio is building its own satellite play with SES; Airtel is a major backer of OneWeb.
For now the decision sits with India's regulators. The security assessments for all three operators are still underway, and spectrum comes after that. Musk has made his accusation in public, New Delhi has denied it in public, and the license Starlink has chased for five years is still not in hand.