On May 13 this year, BJP Rajya Sabha member R.K. Sinha got an urgent call—“Leave for Ninora immediately!” A staunch Sangh loyalist, Sinha quickly followed the instruction to attend the RSS gathering, Vichar Mahakumbh, in the small Madhya Pradesh town, an event on the fringes of the Ujjain Simhastha celebrations. An exclusive gathering as it turned out—inaugurated by RSS sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself gracing the closing ceremony. But Sinha had been summoned for a tête-à-tête with RSS general secretary Bhaiyyaji Joshi, who delivered the high command’s message: “The Sangh’s leadership has decided to give you the responsibility for Hindusthan Samachar Samvad Samiti. Now you will have to lead it.”

Sinha accepted the Sangh’s directive with alacrity. Just three days later, in a board meeting, he was anointed patron of the Samvad Samiti. Within 12 days, an imposing building he owned in Noida’s Sector 63 got a plush makeover to suit the hitherto foundering news agency’s new image. Bhaiyyaji himself officially inaugurated the new offices on June 1; on June 10, Sangh sahsarkaryavah Dattatreya Hosabale paid a visit to offer the news team pointers on journalistic objectivity: “Give preference to positive and growth-oriented news, not violence-, crime- or terrorism-related reports.”

But what made this media story newsworthy was another announcement, also on June 10, of a new policy by the Union ministry for information and broadcasting, which, perhaps coincidentally, promises to give the RSS’s Hindusthan Samachar project new prominence and revenues.