Rajat Sharma

1. 🌆 Born in 1957 in the cramped quarters of Sabzi Mandi, Delhi, Rajat Sharma shared a 100-square-foot room with his parents and seven siblings, studying under a lamp post by the railway station to overcome poverty. 2. ✊ At age 18, during the Emergency of 1975, Sharma was imprisoned for 11 months in Tihar Jail for his involvement in the Jayprakash Narayan movement, a rare political imprisonment for a student in Delhi at that time. 3. 🎓 In 1977, after his release, Sharma was elected General Secretary of the Delhi University Students Union, serving alongside future BJP leader Vijay Goel, marking his early political networking. 4. 🗞 By 1984, he rose from trainee reporter at Onlooker magazine to Chief of Bureau, and then Editor in 1985, despite being often judged by his young age in Mumbai’s competitive journalism scene. 5. 📺 In 1993, Sharma launched Aap Ki Adalat on Zee TV, a courtroom-style celebrity interview show that defied norms and became Indian television's longest-running reality show. 6. 🚀 On 20 May 2004, Sharma co-founded India TV, entering a crowded Hindi news market and leveraging his show’s popularity to build a news empire alongside his wife, Ritu Dhawan. 7. 🏆 In 2015, he received the Padma Bhushan, recognizing his impact on Indian journalism, yet the path was marked by controversies including workplace harassment allegations in 2014. 8. ❓ How did Rajat Sharma’s early days in a cramped Delhi neighborhood and a political prison cell shape his approach to media power and influence in India’s political landscape?