Outlet profile

Sunday Guardian

Indian right/nationalist (BJP-aligned)

Owned byiTV Network, a media conglomerate owned by Kartikeya Sharma, who has served in India's Rajya Sabha (upper house of parliament) as a BJP-backed independent since June 2022

FundingCommercial advertising revenue; part of iTV Network, which also operates India News and NewsX television channels

On the administrationmixed

Background

The Sunday Guardian was founded on January 31, 2010 in New Delhi by M.J. Akbar, a prominent Indian journalist who had earlier edited The Telegraph and the Asian Age. The paper was launched under Akbar's own company, MJP Media Pvt. Ltd., and quickly positioned itself as an outlet for analytical opinion alongside conventional news. iTV Network acquired the paper in 2012, bringing it under the media empire of Kartikeya Sharma. Akbar himself later entered politics, serving as Minister of State for External Affairs in Narendra Modi's BJP government from 2016 until October 2018, when he resigned after multiple women journalists accused him of sexual harassment during his editorial career; he subsequently lost a defamation suit against one of his accusers, journalist Priya Ramani, in 2021. After Akbar's departure, Joyeeta Basu became editor, while geopolitical analyst M.D. Nalapat serves as editorial director. Kartikeya Sharma's election to the Rajya Sabha in 2022 as a BJP-backed candidate drew scrutiny from press-freedom advocates who argued that combining media ownership with political office created conflicts of interest. Critics and independent media observers place the Sunday Guardian within India's 'Godi media' category — outlets seen as defending BJP government policies and Hindu nationalist viewpoints while downplaying criticism of the ruling party. On U.S.–India relations, the paper's coverage tends to evaluate American policy through the lens of Indian national interest, producing a mixed record on the Trump administration that shifts between support when Washington aligns with New Delhi and criticism when it does not.

Sources

Profile compiled 2026-06-30; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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