New Delhi: Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM), an offshoot of the Hindu-nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), has said it opposes the entry of Starlink in India’s satellite broadband space. It has cited several reasons for the opposition, including a desire to promote “swadeshi” companies.“When we asked them [Starlink], ‘Will you switch off the internet when we ask you to?’ Starlink replied, ‘No’,” Ashwini Mahajan, longtime chief of the SJM, told mediapersons during a march against the Elon Musk-promoted entity on Friday (October 23).After the protest, the SJM submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in which it reportedly says that Starlink would use “laser-based satellites” to transmit data, bypassing domestic internet gateways, risking national security.Mahajan claimed that Musk had “not responded” to questions about whether it would “stop” using these “laser based satellites” to bypass Indian “base stations”.The protest call had been issued in advance and the SJM has been raising the issue for a few days.Swadeshi Jagran Manch protest call against Elon Musk’s Starlink. It says India needs ‘indigenous solutions, not foreign control’.SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who is also Starlink’s owner, is one of three prospective providers of satellite based internet services that are said to be a more cost-effective way to link rural and remote areas to the world wide web.Upset over how much time it is taking to clear Starlink’s launch in India, Musk had recently taken on the Modi government and conglomerate Mukesh Ambani in a series of posts on X.“Dear Prime Minister Ambani,” he wrote on the night of October 9, “Naturally, you would prefer to maintain your monopolistic exploitation of the great people of India, but would you nonetheless consider allowing Starlink to compete?”Two days before this post, Musk had said “certain oligarchs” were blocking his company’s license.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, 2026SJM’s claims about Starlink’s servicesJio, owned by Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance and Bharti-backed OneWeb are also contending to secure licenses for providing the service in India.SJM has jumped into this corporate battle over India’s market, claiming to support the “Indian companies” that have pitched to provide satellite services. Some participants in its march on Friday carried posters of Musk with his face cancelled out.Mahajan claimed that Starlink also had “no response” when asked if he would “steal” the data of Indian consumers. It is unclear from his remarks if he was referring to replies from Musk to questions asked by the Indian government, or if SJM had posed questions to the SpaceX CEO.Mahajan then said India should reject Musk’s application altogether: “India has its own capabilities. We can, via satellite technology, roll-out the service throughout the country.”“Ek ya do saal me woh sab ho jayega – we will develop the domestic capability in a year or two,” he claimed.Both Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel have teamed up with major global satellite operators to roll out high-speed satellite broadband in India. While Jio has partnered with Luxembourg-headquartered SES, Bharti Airtel has a tie-up with French-British Eutelsat OneWeb.Interestingly, both Jio and Bharti also signed distribution agreements with SpaceX. While both companies are aggressively laying optical fibre across the country, Elon Musk has the capacity to bridge the last-mile [or longer] gap from the fibre to the customer.Not just that. State governments in several BJP-run states including Maharashtra, Gujarat, Meghalaya and Goa have signed agreements with Starlink. However, the Union government directed them all to halt their talks and projects with Starlink until it secures the required licence to operate in India.A few months after the BJP government came to power in 2014, SJM had organised a protest against foreign brands, with its men marching from store to store in central Delhi’s Connaught Place. But the companies it was declaring as “foreign” had turned out to be Indian-owned and Indian-run. They had thought that Peter England and Colour Plus were “foreign brands”.Elon Musk’s impatient waitThe wait for this license – discussions began in 2022 – has proved tough for the US billionaire, leading him to post on X about corporate rivalry and question Modi’s authority.The Union communications ministry issued a statement on October 8, without naming Musk, saying that the allegation that the authorisation framework for telecommunication services is unfair or discriminatory, is “baseless and misconceived.” It said:“A post is being circulated in social media regarding the fairness of India’s regulatory framework for satellite communication services and suggesting that it is being applied in a discriminatory manner. The Government has put in place a fair and non-discriminatory authorisation framework for all telecommunication services, including satellite communication services.”The statement added:“Security assessment as part of this process is currently under way in respect of all the three licensees. As and when this process is completed for a licensed entity, it may proceed to the next step of seeking assignment of spectrum. At present, all the three entities are at broadly the same regulatory stage. As such, the suggestion that the framework or its application is unfair or discriminatory is baseless and misconceived.”Nevertheless, the wait for a service touted as essential for digital broadband access in rural India, combined with Musk’s posts critical of Narendra Modi and his alleged proximity to corporate giants, has proved tough to shake.A photograph released by Reliance Industries of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio seated in conversation with its chairman Mukesh Ambani recently drew a wave of sarcastic reactions on X, with users invoking Musk’s description of the Indian billionaire as the “real boss of India”.The photograph, showing Rubio and Ambani at Jamnagar in Gujarat, was shared on Wednesday (October 21) night as part of a suite of photos and a written statement by Reliance Industries Limited’s X account.