After the government rejected Elon Musk’s allegations of obstruction in Starlink’s India launch, a senior government official on Friday hit back at the US business tycoon, asserting that neither Musk nor Starlink are “super-privileged entities to be treated preferentially”.Kanchan Gupta, Senior Adviser in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting clarified that while Starlink has secured a satellite communication permit and authorisation from India’s space regulator, it is yet to obtain mandatory security clearance from the government.Responding to Musk’s post on X, Gupta said, “Starlink has secured a satellite communication permit and authorisation from India’s space regulator. It is awaiting a security clearance from the Government”.Clarifying the status of other players, Gupta said, “The other licensees are Eutelsat OneWeb; Amazon Leo is also in contention for a licence; both are being security vetted.”He added that domestic telecommunication majors Airtel and Jio have also not been given licence for sattelite internet.“@elonmusk and his Starlink are not super-privileged entities to be treated preferentially,” Gupta said on X.The official’s remarks come after Musk questioned the delay in granting Starlink the necessary clearance to launch its services in India, despite the company being licensed in more than 165 countries.“Starlink is licensed in over 165 countries and has spent five years complying with every single law and requirement of the government of India, so why still no license? Is Ambani the real boss of India?” Musk posted on Thursday.The latest exchange follows Musk’s accusation that unnamed “oligarchs” were blocking Starlink’s entry to protect their dominance in the domestic market.“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,” he had said in an earlier post on X, describing the alleged obstruction as “a crime against the people of India”.Rejecting allegations of discrimination, the government reiterated that it had put in place a “fair and non-discriminatory” authorisation framework for all telecommunication services, including satellite communications.In an official statement, the government confirmed that three global mobile personal communication by satellite service providers using non-geostationary satellite orbit systems have been granted initial licences. However, all providers must undergo prescribed security evaluations before advancing to the next stage of the regulatory process.“Security assessment as part of this process is currently under way in respect of all three licensees,” the government said, adding that spectrum assignment will only follow the successful completion of security clearances.