Compromised Domestic Policy and Corporate Appeasement
Economic Concessions and Strategic Vulnerabilities
National Dignity and Reciprocal Geopolitical Relations
“The following is the published full text of EAS Sarma’s letter to T V Somanathan, Cabinet Secretary, Central government”
Elon Musk‘s derogatory comment on the Prime Minister and the US Vice President‘s equally derogatory reference to Indian H-1B visa professionals as “indentured servants” are good enough reasons for India to revoke permissions given to StarLink, withdraw tax holiday for US data centres and review import of US nuclear reactors.
E A S Sarma
Former Secretary to the Government of India
To
Shri T V Somanathan
Cabinet Secretary
Dear Shri Somanathan,
I refer to a highly objectionable reference made recently by Elon Musk (“Dear Prime Minister Ambani: Elon Musk repeats jibe amid his Starlink India push”- https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/musk-doubles-down-on-real-boss-ambani-jibe-questions-monopolies-as-he-seeks-starlinks-india-entry-3013721-2026-10-09), suggesting that the Ambani Group has an overarching influence over the political executive in India. While India should condemn that statement in no unclear terms, there are important lessons to be learnt from the circumstances leading to such a statement.
In that connection, I invite your attention to my letter of 17-10-2024 addressed to the Telecom Secretary (copy marked to you) (https://countercurrents.org/2024/10/elon-musk-and-satellite-spectrum-allocation-dot-should-earmark-satellite-spectrum-for-strategic-uses-respect-apex-courts-judgement-in-2g-spectrum-case/) in which I had sp[ecifically referred to an announcement reported to have been made by Telecom Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia (https://www.indiatoday.in/business/story/government-favours-administrative-allocation-spectrum-amid-elon-musk-ambani-showdown-2617515-2024-10-16) that India would follow the global trend of administrative spectrum allocation. According to that report, the decision came after Starlink CEO Elon Musk objected to Ambani’s Reliance Jio lobbying for the auction route. I then pointed out the irony of the Department of Telecommunications (DOT) getting so easily swayed by pressure from one global player, Elon Musk, not by the needs of Defence, ISRO, or millions of consumers who are woefully at the receiving end of corporate telecom operators, on whose tariffs, regulatory control is non-existent.
In my letter, I expressed the feeling that the Telecom Minister had not been adequately briefed by his officers of Hon’ble Supreme Court’s observations in the well-kinown “2G Spectrum Case” on the necessity of allocating satellite spectrum on the basis of a transparent auction system so as to ensure that a precious resource like satellite spectrum may not get allotted for a pittance. I further pointed out that Elon Musk’s StarLink worked closely with the US defence services and, therefore, it would be imprudent for India to place its satellite spectrum in his hands. I then expressed the view that satellite spectrum should preferably be reserved for ISRO and our own defence needs. The Telecom Department had apparently brushed aside my concerns and gone ahead pampering Elon Musk in every possible way.
Later, in February, 2025, Elon Musk with his family called on the Prime Minister and his official team in the USA (https://youtu.be/gCfK0qPz6aA). By all accounts, it was an unusual meeting at which the Prime Minister seemed to have given more-than-necessary importance to the US oligarch.
I feel concerned that our political leaders should go out of the way to give undue importance to such USA-based corporate entities, when that country has had no hesitation whatsoever in handcuffing Indian migrant workers with inhuman contempt and deporting them in a highly derogatory manner to India and, more recently, when the US Vice-President referred to highly talented Indian professionals working in the USA on H-1B visas as “indentured servants”, subjecting them to undue harassment (https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/vances-indentured-servants-remark-deeply-offensive-government/articleshow/134845532.cms).
In her Budget Speech this year, the Finance Minister announced an open-ended “tax holiday till 2047” to “foreign” data centres, a euphemism for US companies like Google setting up data centres in India, unmindful of the fact that such a tax holiday would imply doling out thousands of crores of rupees to those companies for nothing in return, and equally unmindful of the fact that such foreign data centres pose a serious threat to India’s data sovereignty.
In the field of atomic energy, it was Dr Homi J Bhabha who provided a headstart to India in developing indigenous capabilities in using atomic energy for power generation and who laid out a long-term vision for India to become self-reliant in that field. Under intense pressure from the US government and the US nuclear reactor suppliers, the then UPA government went out of the way to invite US nuclear reactor manufacturers to supply reactors to India. More recently, the present NDA government further yielded to US pressure to bring in the SHANTI Act, replacing the Atomic Energy Act and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, granting exemption to foreign reactor suppliers from liability arising from accidents attributable to defective reactors.
Such exemption incentivises US reactor suppliers to compromise the safety features of reactor design. In other words, the NDA government went out of the way to change the domestic law to facilitate promotion of the business interests of US reactor manufacturers, at the cost of domestic tax-payers. Allowing large-scale reactor imports would also imply moving away from Bhabha’s vision to realise self-reliance in the field of atomic energy. While India should promote economic cooperation with the US and other countries for mutual benefits, such cooperation should be strictly reciprocal, not at the cost of India’s self-interest and its self-pride.
Following the unsavoury comment of the US Vice-President on Indian H-1B visa professionals and the derogatory reference made by Elon Musk, I suggest that India reviews its economic relations with the US, revokes permissions given to StarLink for using satellite spectrum, and reviews the need for importing US nuclear reactors.
I hope that the government will act firmly as above
Yours sincerely,
E A S Sarma, Visakhapatnam. 12th October 2026, 14-40-4/1 Gokhale Road, Maharanipeta, Visakhapatnam 530002. Mobile: 91-9866021646 – Email: eassarma@gmail.com – Website: http://eassarma.in
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