Communications minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Friday rejected billionaire Elon Musk’s claim that his satellite internet service, Starlink, was being blocked by “certain oligarchs”, asserting that India does not allow a monopoly in any sector and questioned Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s response to a post by Musk.
“Now let me be very clear, India does not allow monopoly in any sector… even as satcom is concerned, there is not a single licensee that has been chosen. The minister brushed aside the Congress’s criticism.
Earlier, Scindia told reporters at the India Mobile Congress that he wanted to set the record straight. Licences have been given to everyone who wants to provide these licences,” he said. Scindia said that while there is a lot of conversation about one particular company, three have got satcom licences. “I don’t think they themselves know whether they are going left or right,” he said in response to a question on a post by Rahul Gandhi.
“They don’t have clarity in terms of where they are going. This is when Rahul Gandhi waded in. “Welcome to India, Elon.
Scindia said the Congress first objected to a certain person getting a licence and now objects to why its new ally is not getting one. But that is the case with Congress, which is to be expected,” the minister said. The communications ministry rejected the charge and said suggestions that Starlink was being discriminated against were “baseless and misconceived” and that India’s framework for satcom services was fair and non-discriminatory. The statement stressed that the security assessment of the three entities was under way and that they were at “broadly the same regulatory stage”. Wait till you discover the other guy,” the Congress leader said.
