Senator Bernie Sanders directed a charge of "oligarchy" at Elon Musk, the founder and chief executive of SpaceX — a development that came shortly after Musk himself had raised the same term while asserting that Starlink's internet services were being kept out of India.
Sanders, who holds an independent Senate seat while aligning with Democratic caucus members, wrote in a post on X that Musk had directed approximately $290 million toward Donald Trump's presidential run. Sanders attributed a $696 billion increase in Musk's net worth to the period following the election, described him as having crossed the trillion-dollar threshold in personal wealth, and alleged that approximately $366 million had been directed toward efforts to maintain Republican congressional majorities. Sanders closed the post with a call for action against Musk, characterising the figures cited as still falling short of adequate concern. In a speech, Sanders put forward a demand to dismantle what he characterised as rule by a wealthy few.
In a post on X the previous week, Musk had raised questions about why Starlink had not received a licence in India, noting the company had met regulatory directions up to that point. In a separate post, Musk contended that certain unnamed business interests were preventing Starlink from operating in India in order to preserve their dominant position in the country's market. The SpaceX chief executive argued that Starlink held the network capacity to close connectivity gaps in rural areas that remain poorly served, while a further statement attributed the absence of regulatory approval to commercial players with a vested interest in keeping rivals out of their territory. Musk described the situation as an offence against the Indian public, adding that those responsible could be identified without much difficulty.
The communications ministry pushed back against the claims made by Musk, with an official statement describing any notion that the country's regulatory framework — or how it had been applied — operated in a discriminatory manner as unfounded and without merit. The ministry noted that content spreading across social media platforms had raised questions about whether the country's regulatory approach to satellite communication services was being applied on equal terms for all parties involved.
The ministry stated that licences for satellite-based mobile communications using non-geosynchronous orbits had been extended to three operators, and that an authorisation structure covering all telecoms providers — including those in the satellite segment — had been put in place without discrimination. The three operators — Starlink, Eutelsat OneWeb, and Jio Satellite Communications — were described as having reached a comparable point in the regulatory process, with security vetting of each licence holder described as ongoing.
Built around a fleet of satellites in low-Earth orbit, the SpaceX-operated Starlink network delivers broadband to households and communities where ground-based mobile infrastructure struggles to function reliably. Spectrum allocation and security clearances remain outstanding requirements for all three companies before any commercial services can get under way, according to a statement from Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia.
