A parliamentarian for 11 years, with a fierce nationalism, a high public profile and money to spend, Rajeev Chandrasekhar has enough badges of honour to charge at India’s greatest bastions of power. But he has not managed to break into them yet. If anything will get him in, it is his media empire—spanning multiple languages and states, and boasting a popular newspaper and three major television channels, including the bellicose Republic TV. Nikita Saxena and Atul Dev report.   Also in this issue:     ScoopWhoop’s unending list of troubles; How WhatsApp has changed news in small-town India; Why high-profile events by news organisations can damage journalistic independence; The government and media’s cover-up after the Gorakhpur tragedy; The compromised state of journalism in Kashmir; Searching for Hogwarts in South Asia