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By:

Rajiv Shah

22 September 2025 at 8:32:23 pm

How Sovereign Resistance Is Challenging US Tech Hegemony

From colonial-era control of trade routes to today’s contest over satellites, data and digital infrastructure, India’s confrontation with American tech power exposes the growing tension between global connectivity, corporate dominance and national sovereignty. The historical memory of colonialism is long, deeply etched into the collective consciousness of the Global South. For centuries, foreign powers arrived on distant shores under the banner of trade, infrastructure, and philanthropy, only...

How Sovereign Resistance Is Challenging US Tech Hegemony

From colonial-era control of trade routes to today’s contest over satellites, data and digital infrastructure, India’s confrontation with American tech power exposes the growing tension between global connectivity, corporate dominance and national sovereignty. The historical memory of colonialism is long, deeply etched into the collective consciousness of the Global South. For centuries, foreign powers arrived on distant shores under the banner of trade, infrastructure, and philanthropy, only to strip sovereign nations of their resources, redraw their laws, and compromise their independence. Today, that old expansionist playbook has been digitised. Instead of physical gunboats and chartered trading companies, the instruments of modern dominion are satellite constellations, algorithms, and cloud infrastructure. The colonial empires of the past understood that control over ports, railways, shipping routes, and communications networks could translate into political authority and economic dependence. In the contemporary world, control over cloud computing, satellite communications, semiconductor supply chains, and the platforms through which societies exchange information can exercise a comparable structural influence, even without territorial occupation. The difference is that the new frontier is governed not only by states, but also by corporations whose technological reach increasingly rivals the capabilities of governments. The brewing geopolitical conflict between the United States and India has brought this “digital colonialism” into sharp, unmistakable focus. The current US administration, executing a hyper-aggressive, unilateral “America First” strategy, has increasingly aligned itself with tech billionaires to treat foreign sovereignty as an administrative hurdle. The recent high-stakes standoff over Elon Musk’s satellite internet service, Starlink, coupled with crushing US economic sanctions and visa freezes, demonstrates how tech monopolies and state power now operate as an interlocking machine. However, the heavy-handed approach has triggered an intense, grassroots nationalistic backlash, proving that the digital architecture of the 21st century cannot be built on the submission of sovereign nations. Digital Colonialism Digital colonialism refers to a structural system where a handful of technologically advanced nations, primarily the United States, use their corporate monopolies to control the digital ecosystem, data pipelines, and critical infrastructure of other countries. Under this model, developing nations are treated merely as data goldmines to be extracted and passive consumer markets to be dominated. For years, Silicon Valley executives utilised a standard “Twitter diplomacy” model to bypass foreign regulations. By leveraging massive digital footprints, corporate giants routinely bullied smaller or less tech-reliant nations into granting sweeping concessions under the guise of “bringing connectivity to the unconnected.” This corporate philanthropy is frequently a Trojan horse designed to secure data monopolies and hook local populations on proprietary, foreign-owned infrastructure. When this corporate pressure fails, the full weight of US state power is brought to bear. The Trump administration’s integrated economic squeeze—imposing massive $100,000-plus surcharges on H-1B visas, threatening universal tariffs on Indian goods, and suddenly freezing Indian tech firms out of the PERM Green Card application process—functions as an economic club. Obviously, it is a deliberate effort to create an asymmetric trap: utilising state tools to strangle a nation’s domestic industries from above, while corporate spearheads like Musk launch high-pressure campaigns to break open its regulatory defences from below. This struggle also belongs to a much longer history of post-colonial economic resistance. The Non-Aligned Movement emerged during the Cold War from the determination of newly independent nations to avoid becoming instruments of competing superpowers. Today, strategic autonomy must extend beyond military alliances and diplomatic manoeuvring to encompass control over data, digital payments, communications networks, and the technological standards that shape economic life. For India and much of the Global South, the challenge is not to reject foreign technology, but to ensure that access to it does not become a new instrument of external leverage. Aggressive Rhetoric The immediate flashpoint of this conflict ignited when Musk publicly accused Indian telecom regulators of committing a “crime against the people of India.” In an aggressive rhetorical campaign, Musk alleged that domestic regulations were designed to maintain a “monopolistic chokehold,” directly targeting Indian business leaders by asking on social media, “Is Ambani the real boss of India?” The underlying reality, however, is a matter of strict national security, not corporate favouritism. The Indian Ministry of Communications flatly rejected the billionaire’s claims, reiterating that Starlink, alongside all domestic and international competitors, must undergo mandatory data security audits and satellite gateway localisation assessments. In a world where data is the definitive currency of national power, allowing a foreign corporation to operate an autonomous, unmonitored satellite network that transmits domestic data directly to overseas servers is a fundamental national security risk. The US strategy fundamentally miscalculates the unique nature of India’s digital landscape. Unlike many regions that rely entirely on Western tech infrastructure, India has systematically built one of the world’s most advanced, self-reliant, and affordable digital public infrastructures, highlighted by the open-source Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and a hyper-competitive, hyper-affordable 4G/5G cellular network. Because India built its own digital foundations, its public and policymakers view foreign attempts to dictate regulatory terms not as a gift of modern technology, but as an existential threat to economic sovereignty. India’s experience carries wider significance because it challenges the assumption that technological modernisation must follow a model designed and controlled by Western corporations. Whether Silicon Valley or Washington understands it or not, the aggressive, top-down strategy has backfired at the grassroots level. In India, corporate bullying by foreign tech magnates does not intimidate the population; it unites them. Consumer groups, digital rights advocates, and everyday internet users have reacted with an intense nationalistic backlash, reframing the dispute from a telecom technicality into a defence of sovereign dignity. Indian consumers are uniquely sensitive to foreign encroachment. When a Western billionaire uses public threats to demand a bypass of national security laws, the public quickly recognises the echo of historical exploitation. This has sparked a growing sentiment that if Starlink refuses to respect the laws of the land, it will be banned not by the paperwork of the government, but by a quiet, devastating boycott by the consumers themselves. The global order is rapidly fracturing. By treating long-standing allies as economic targets and dismantling the international treaties that governed global behaviour, the US is alienating the very markets it seeks to dominate. The stakes extend well beyond the India–US relationship. As the European Union pursues digital regulation, China builds alternative technological ecosystems, and emerging economies seek greater control over their data, the world is moving towards a more contested digital order. Satellite internet is only one part of this struggle; artificial intelligence, cloud infrastructure, digital currencies, and access to critical computing resources will increasingly determine who sets the rules of the global economy. The unfolding resistance in India proves that the days of unchallenged digital colonialism are over. If a foreign entity wishes to operate in the world’s largest open internet market, it must do so as an equal partner, under local laws, and with explicit respect for the sovereignty of the people. No amount of geopolitical leverage from Washington can force a proud, independent nation to buy products from a corporate empire that views them with contempt. Critics argue that these developments point towards a broader, coordinated squeeze on the nation. On one front, the US administration’s shifting stance towards Pakistan signals an attempt to alter regional balances. On the domestic front, a recent public exchange between Elon Musk and opposition leader Rahul Gandhi regarding corporate monopolies has fuelled intense political debate. Sceptics view this digital alignment with caution, arguing that combining foreign corporate pressure with aggressive domestic political protests—which have previously disrupted parliamentary proceedings—risks destabilising the country’s economic and democratic momentum at a critical juncture. Now is the time to be on alert. (The writer is an advocate and a public policy analyst. Views personal)

India waits to lasso diamantaire Mehul Choksi

Quaid Najmi
Apr 14, 2025
5 min read

Mumbai: India rubbed its hands gleefully as the Belgium Police honoured its request to arrest the absconder diamantaire Mehul Chinubhai Choksi – more than seven years after he, along with his nephew Nirav Deepak Modi - allegedly duped the Punjab National Bank of nearly Rs. 13,800-crores.

 

The scam involving the ‘Mehul Mama-Nirav Bhanja’ erupted in Jan 2018, after the PNB lodged a complaint with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

 

By then the kin, along with many of their family members, winked and slipped out of the country, leaving a rattled India rubbing its palms in disappointment.

 

A political-cum-financial storm raged, embarrassing the Bharatiya Janata Party government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi a year before the Lok Sabha elections.

 

Multiple agencies launched a multi-pronged probe into what became the biggest banking scam in the past quarter century – and almost four times bigger than the stock market-cum-banking fraud the late Big Bull Harshad Mehta had inflicted on the Indian economy 33 years ago (in April 1992) – when it was just opening up.

 

In Belgium

According to official reports, Choksi was living with his Belgium citizen-wife Preeti in Antwerp, a global diamond hub, presumably for the past 18 months on a ‘residency permit’ acquired through questionable means, for medical reasons.

 

Earlier, he shot to the headers (June 2021) while being taken in a wheelchair to a court by the Dominican Republic's Police on charges of sneaking into the small country in the Caribbean Sea, North America.

 

Interestingly, as the Antigua & Barbuda government initiated the process to cancel his citizenship acquired through an investor visa, Choksi had suddenly gone ‘missing’ till he surfaced in the Dominican Republic.

 

The April 2025 action by Belgium followed a request by India’s CBI and the financial frauds specialist Enforcement Directorate (ED) to nab Choksi as the InterPol had revoked his Red Corner Notice in 2023.

 

Mama and Bhanja

‘Mama’ Choksi is the founder-owner of Gitanjali Group while ‘bhanja’ Nirav’s Firestar plus other companies – and the duo, with some PNB officials hand-in-glove – conspired to make a ‘mamu’ of not only PNB, but other banks, as it subsequently tumbled out.

 

After making a quiet exit, Choksi was detected living in the verdant Antigua & Barbuda Isles (West Indies), then attempted entry to the Dominican Republic, was sent back to Antigua & Barbuda and then went to Belgium where he was nabbed on Sunday.

 

Similarly, Modi was found sauntering on the streets of London and nabbed in March 2019. He remains in jail there since India's extradition is still pending.

 

However, India is keeping its fingers crossed that it may finally lay hands on Choksi, bring him to India and face trial in the PNB scam, though it may take time.

 

Born in Mumbai (1959) and educated in Gujarat, Choksi, 66, and wife Preeti have three children.

 

The Rs. 13,800-crore PNB scam

In the modus operandi revealed after India’s second-largest PSU bank PNB admitted it was scammed, Choksi and Modi used fraudulent Letters of Undertaking (LoU) to get overseas credits or loans from Indian banks.

 

The PNB first informed the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) of the fraud and then lodged a criminal complaint with the CBI in Jan. 2018, plus another CBI complaint in Feb, that led to a FIR against Modi and Choksi and their companies.

 

The ED entered the scene to probe the allegations of money-laundering through the LoUs – which they allegedly misused to avail short-term business finances from foreign branches of Indian banks.

 

The probe said that the duo were availing the LoUs from the PNB’s Brady House Branch from March 2011, and over the next six-seven years, managed to get a whopping 1,200-plus LoUs like a breeze with the help of some friendly bankers within.

 

Post-scam, the gold-diamond companies Gitanjali Group and Firestone Group with multiple operations in India and abroad have largely wound up, while some personal assets of the mama-bhanja have been auctioned to recover a part of the dues.

 

ED's plea to declare Choksi fugitive stuck for seven years

Even as absconding diamantaire Mehul Choksi, a key accused in the Punjab National Bank loan fraud case, has been arrested in Belgium, the ED's plea to declare him a fugitive economic offender has been pending before a court in Mumbai for nearly seven years.


Choksi, 65, and his nephew diamantaire Nirav Modi are the prime accused in the Rs 13,000 crore PNB bank loan fraud case. Choksi was arrested in Belgium following an extradition request by Indian probe agencies, official sources said on Monday.


The Enforcement Directorate had filed the application in July 2018, seeking to declare Choksi an FEO and confiscate his assets under provisions of the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act.


However, the matter has witnessed repeated delays owing to a barrage of applications filed by the accused in the PMLA court and the Bombay High Court alleging procedural lapses in the Enforcement Directorate's plea.


"The court is kept busy with frivolous applications, and hearing on our application to declare him (Choksi) an FEO has been adjourned for the past seven years,” an ED officer had said after the hearing was once again deferred this February.


"The court should have continued the hearing and taken a decision on the future course of action once the application was moved," the officer had said.

He had urged the court to take note of the repeated filing of similar applications and to not entertain them.


Choksi's lawyer had informed the court that the accused was undergoing treatment for suspected cancer in Belgium and intended to file an application in connection with his health.


Under the FEO Act, an individual can be declared a Fugitive Economic Offender if a warrant has been issued against him for an offence involving Rs 100 crore or more and he has left India while refusing to return. Once declared an FEO, the person's property can be confiscated by the investigating agency.


Choksi had challenged the ED's application in the Bombay High Court, alleging that the agency "had not followed proper procedure before filing the application and, hence, it stands vitiated".


However, in September 2023, the High Court dismissed his plea, ruling that the ED had adhered to the prescribed format under the FEO Act. It also vacated a stay on the special court's proceedings.


Despite this, the hearing on declaring Choksi FEO could not commence, with Choksi continuing to file applications before the special court through his lawyers.


While most of these pleas have been dismissed, a few remain pending. His latest attempt to stall proceedings through a plea to recall the notice issued on the ED's FEO application was rejected in December 2023.


According to ED officials, Choksi left India under suspicious circumstances in early January 2018.


Shifting stance

Choksi's counsel has argued that the ED kept shifting its stance on the material grounds for declaring him an FEO and that the suspension of his Indian passport made it impossible for him to return for investigation.

The court, however, rejected this argument, stating that the notice was issued based on accurate information and not based on "wrong facts or mistaken assumptions".


ED claimed the accused left the country under suspicious circumstances in the first week of January 2018.


Nirav Modi has already been declared as an FEO by the special court. He has been lodged in jail in London since 2019.

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