Airtel, Jio deals with Musk's Starlink orchestrated by Modi to win Trump's goodwill, says Congress

'It is abundantly clear that these partnerships have been orchestrated by none other than the PM himself to buy goodwill with President Trump through Starlink's owner Mr. Elon Musk,' Ramesh alleged.

New Delhi: Opposition on Thursday questioned the joining hands of Airtel and Jio with Elon Musk’s Starlink. The Congress claimed that this compromises national security and accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of 'orchestrating' deals 'to buy goodwill' with US President Donald Trump.

CPI(M) said allowing a US company to acquire strategic satellite spectrum and orbital slots and create a space monopoly compromises national security, as it is “now known” that the US had “threatened” to stop Starlink services to the Ukraine military and forced Zelenskyy to concede US demands on “handing over its natural resources and negotiating” with Russia under US aegis.

Congress General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh said that both Airtel and Jio have announced separate partnerships with Starlink within 12 hours by “overcoming all their objections” to its entry into India. Both had been voicing their opposition to Starlink's entry into India for quite some time, he said.

“It is abundantly clear that these partnerships have been orchestrated by none other than the Prime Minister himself to buy goodwill with President Trump through Starlink's owner Elon Musk,” he alleged.

“But many questions remain. Perhaps the most important one relates to national security. Who will have the power to switch connectivity on or off when national security demands it? Will it be Starlink or its Indian partners? Will other satellite-based connectivity providers also be permitted and on what basis?” he posted on X.

“And, of course, the much larger question of Tesla manufacturing in India remains. Is there some commitment to it now that Starlink's entry into India has been facilitated?” he said.

Separately, Ramesh also said both these companies had been opposing Starlink's entry into India on the grounds that Musk's company wanted the allocation of spectrum while they wanted spectrum to be auctioned, which was the government's policy since 2014.

“Every day, Trump is announcing that India is reducing its tariffs. We don't know what India has agreed on and what has not been agreed. But clearly, this is a friendship-buying move. The Prime Minister is clearly hoping that Trump will be kept happy because we have kept Musk happy,” he added.

In a statement, CPI(M) Polit Bureau said satellite spectrum should be allocated exclusively for strategic uses, such as defence and ISRO operations.

"Any private deal for allocating spectrum would be a violation of the law of the land. Jio, Airtel and Starlink coming together to form a cartel to dominate satellite spectrum use will be at the cost of millions of telecom subscribers in India," it said.

“This is not only a question of spectrum allocation but also the number of orbital slots a country has. Allowing such satellites to capture vital orbital slots but also use them for mapping our natural resources, gathering commercially valuable data, e.g., weather, the status of crops, and, of course, strategic military/defence data, would be against our national and security interests. Particularly as ISRO and other Indian agencies have the ability to do so,” it said.

Earlier this week, Airtel and Jio Platforms struck separate deals with SpaceX, the aerospace company owned by Musk, to bring Starlink’s broadband internet services to India.

Both the companies had joined hands earlier to demand auction for awarding spectrum for satellite services in India. They had expressed concerns that administrative allocation of spectrum would give Musk airwaves at a price lower than what they had paid via auctions in the past