New Delhi, India – The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday criticised SpaceX founder Elon Musk for his remarks on India’s spectrum allocation policy, while taking a jibe at the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, over his exchange with Musk on X. “What is more surprising is that Mr. Rahul Gandhi, who earlier always used to accuse us of surrendering before the American leadership, is now championing the cause of Mr. Musk,” BJP national vice-president Ram Madhav told the media.
“What happened for him to become ‘surrender’ Gandhi? His own advisors, like Mr. Jairam Ramesh himself, had tweeted in the past that Elon Musk’s Starlink can be a national security risk,” he said. “The whole country would like to know what happened between Mr. Musk and Mr. ‘surrender’ Gandhi overnight.” Madhav also said, “Elon Musk must remember that he is not dealing with a banana republic. He is dealing with a big country that is respected, whose leadership is respected globally. You should also be respectful towards this country and its leadership.”
Stating that India had a proper, non-discriminatory system in place to allocate spectrum, he said, “Whom he was seeking to ridicule as oligarchs? Mr. Musk was seeking to ridicule some of our business leaders as oligarchs. Even Jio and Airtel, along with Starlink, are also waiting. In a very non-discriminatory way, the Government of India will take its decision at an appropriate time.” “This is Modi government. Everything will happen in a transparent and non-discriminatory way,” Madhav said, alleging that spectrum had been sold indiscriminately during the UPA regime, leading to huge corruption allegations.
In a post tagging Musk, former Union Information Technology Minister and BJP leader Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the technology sector is governed by three principles of openness, safety and trust, and accountability. “I am not in government anymore and certainly do not speak for it. But it seems to me that the government has made it clear: all three satcom licensees are at broadly the same stage of ensuring security clearance by verifying its safety and trust first, then spectrum,” he said, adding that satellite IP services had several security implications.
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Pointing out that India has faced years of terror and insurgency supported by inimical state actors in its neighbourhood, he said that from the 26/11 terror attacks to the recent attacks in Pahalgam, satcom had been a preferred means of communication for terrorists. He described Starlink as an “awesome technology,” adding, “But a country has to plan for itself and its interests before every new choice. That’s what India is doing. Patience is unavoidable and in this case is a necessity.”
