[Marxistindia] Oppose Starlink Entry into India

[news from the cpi(m)]

June 7, 2025
Press Statement

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued 
the following statement:
Oppose Starlink’s Entry into India
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) opposes the permission given by 
the government of India to Elon Musk’s Starlink to commence its 
operations in India.
There is no transparency in the entire process of how Starlink was 
accorded permission to operate in our country. StarLink is a foreign 
corporation and handing over India’s critical infrastructure to foreign 
hands has serious security implications. It provides a backdoor to US 
agencies into our telecom system and even our strategic communications.
The number of satellite spots, particularly Low Earth Orbit spots once 
allocated to Starlink cannot be taken back. This is giving up our scarce 
space resources to foreign entities, in process sacrificing our 
country’s interests.
If the government is really interested in developing the self-reliant 
capacities of our country, it could have used the services of ISRO. 
India, particularly DoT, C-DOT have the ability to provide the necessary 
equipment for the SATCOM sector. These measures would have strengthened 
Indian public sector and also safeguarded our security and digital 
sovereignty.
The entire deal is shrouded in mystery. It is reported that TRAI is 
charging only 4 per cent spectrum usage charges and is not collecting 
any upfront fees. This results in a huge loss to our exchequer and are 
detrimental to our interests. Even the status and details of the 
permission from the Indian space regulator, In-SPACe, are not yet 
public.
The entry of Starlink and it’s partnership with Ambani’s Reliance Jio 
and Mittal’s Bharati Airtel is going to create a virtual duopoly, which 
will make it very difficult for the public sector BSNL to compete. This 
is going to be government’s yet another attempt to finish off the BSNL, 
which provides cheap telecom and internet services to almost all parts 
of the country.
Allowing Starlink’s operations are going to harm the interests of the 
country in the long run. The CPI(M) demands the government to 
immediately rescind its decision.

(Muralidharan)
For CPI(M) Central Committee Office