Elon Musk hits out at ‘oligarchs’ for blocking Starlink in India

The wait for Starlink's India launch has clearly frustrated Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of SpaceX.

2 min readOct 8, 2026 08:19 AM IST First published on: Oct 8, 2026 at 08:19 AM IST

SpaceX's Starlink is closer than ever to launching its satellite internet service in India. (File Photo)

Elon Musk has hit out at unnamed “oligarchs” over the long wait for Starlink’s launch in India. In a post on X, the SpaceX founder said the satellite internet service was being stopped “to maintain their monopolistic chokehold on the Indian people”, and added: “You can guess who they are.” He did not name anyone.

Starlink has a licence to offer satellite internet services in India, but it is still waiting for security clearances and spectrum band allocation before it can start commercial services, Bloomberg reported. The company says it has built 20 gateway sites and India-specific security controls, and is ready to begin once India gives the go-ahead.

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 … This is a crime against the people of India!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 7, 2026

What Musk said

Musk made the remarks while replying to a post which argued that India needs Starlink to bring faster internet to areas where phone towers and fibre cables are hard to build, India Today said.

“This is a crime against the people of India!” he added. In another post, he said Starlink would give fast and affordable internet to people who cannot pay current prices or have no connection at all.

Bloomberg reported Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel did not reply to its requests for comment, which were sent after regular business hours.

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