Real boss of India”: Musk doubles down on Ambani Blurb: A day after asking if Ambani runs India, Musk apologised for not treating him as prime minister and tied the jab to rural internet access. The government calls monopoly claims baseless.
BY PC Bureau
October 9: Elon Musk on Friday escalated his public campaign over Starlink’s delayed commercial launch in India, posting an open letter that sarcastically addressed Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani as “Prime Minister Ambani” and asked him to allow the satellite service to compete.
In the post on X, Musk wrote that he had not realized Ambani was “the real boss of India,” accused him of preferring “monopolistic exploitation” of Indian consumers, and said Starlink could bring internet to areas with little or no access, helping education and small businesses. The message ended with a thank-you and a folded-hands emoji.
The post extends a line of attacks Musk began a day earlier. On Thursday he said Starlink was licensed in more than 165 countries and had spent five years meeting Indian requirements, then asked, “Is Ambani the real boss of India?” He had previously blamed unnamed “oligarchs” for blocking the service to protect what he called a monopolistic hold on the market, and described the delay as a “crime against the people of India.” He has not published evidence that Ambani controls the licensing decision.
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India’s government has rejected that framing. The Ministry of Communications said suggestions of discriminatory treatment were “baseless and misconceived,” and that three satellite operators — Starlink, Reliance Jio’s satellite arm, and Bharti-backed Eutelsat OneWeb — hold licences and are at broadly the same regulatory stage, with security assessments under way for all three. Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said on Friday that India “does not allow a monopoly in any sector,” and that commercial service can begin only after spectrum charges are settled and each company meets security conditions on its own.
Dear Prime Minister Ambani,
Please accept my humble apologies for not realizing 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?
There are many areas of India, as there are in all countries, with no Internet access, which denies children the opportunity for education and for small businesses the opportunity to sell their goods to a global market. Starlink would change their lives for the better.
Thank you 🙏
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 9, 2026
Starlink received a Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite licence in June 2025 and authorisation from the space regulator IN-SPACe in July 2025. It still cannot sell service until security clearance and spectrum assignment are complete. As a wholly foreign-owned applicant, it also faces foreign-investment requirements that domestic licensees do not. Amazon’s Leo project has been described by the minister as still in the licensing process.
The commercial backdrop is a market dominated by mobile networks, led by Ambani’s Reliance Jio, which reported more than 520 million customers. Reliance has argued against preferential treatment for satellite broadband after spending heavily on terrestrial spectrum auctions. At the same time, both Jio and Bharti Airtel have announced partnerships to offer Starlink to their customers, which undercuts a simple account of a total block on the service.
The row has also drawn in opposition politics. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi replied to Musk’s earlier post with a line widely read as a reference to Gautam Adani — “Wait till you discover the other guy” — and Musk answered that the situation was “troubling.”
What is established is a multi-year approval process that is not yet finished, and a public accusation that one industrialist is the reason. What is not established is that Ambani, rather than security review and spectrum rules applied across licensees, is deciding when Starlink can switch on.
