Once feared by editors and political rivals alike, Joshi now faces the biggest test of his career as allegations swirl around foreign links, national security breaches, and a powerful digital empire built in the shadows.
BY Navin Upadhyay
New Delhi, December 4, 2025 — In the labyrinth of India’s power corridors, few figures inspire the mix of awe, fear, and secrecy reserved for Hiren Joshi. The soft-spoken engineer-turned-strategist—long described as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s indispensable “left hand”—now finds himself at the center of explosive allegations from Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera.
Joshi, an Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in the Prime Minister’s Office overseeing Communications and IT, is accused of holding stakes in the notorious Mahadev Betting App, a sprawling illegal gambling syndicate that has trapped Bollywood celebrities, politicians, bureaucrats, and hawala networks in its web. But Khera’s attack goes far beyond financial wrongdoing. He alleges that Joshi engineered an unparalleled stranglehold over India’s media ecosystem, “throttling” press freedoms in ways unseen even during the Emergency.
And yet, in a country where media thrives on scandal and controversy, India’s mainstream outlets have almost entirely ignored this sensational story. Only a handful of news channels briefly covered Pawan Khera’s explosive press conference, and even fewer dared to follow up with in-depth reporting or investigative pieces. Headlines were scarce, prime-time debates muted, and the story’s reach seemed deliberately constricted. Observers note a striking contrast between the magnitude of the allegations—linking a top bureaucrat to illegal gambling networks and media manipulation—and the tepid response from newsrooms that typically amplify political fireworks. Many journalists, it seems, tread carefully, aware that crossing certain invisible lines may bring professional repercussions or scrutiny, leaving the public largely in the dark about one of the most explosive claims in recent political history.
Rumours of Joshi’s abrupt, unannounced exit from the PMO—still unverified—have only heightened intrigue. With the Enforcement Directorate probing more than ₹5,000 crore in illicit Mahadev-linked transactions, any proven link to Joshi could rattle the uppermost rungs of the ruling establishment, raising urgent questions about cronyism, compromised institutions, and democratic backsliding.
“Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera launched a major attack regarding Hiren Joshi!”#Congress #PawanKhera #HirenJoshi #BJP4IND #PMOIndia #NarendraModi #BJPGovernment #NewDelhiPost@BJP4India @INCIndia @Pawankhera @PMOIndia pic.twitter.com/wdB8LIOZlo
— New Delhi Post (@NewDelhiPost) December 3, 2025
The Rise of Hiren Joshi: From Classroom Professor to Modi’s Most Trusted Operator
Before he became one of India’s most powerful bureaucratic figures, Hiren Joshi lived a quiet academic life. A professor of electronics in Bhilwara, Rajasthan, he kept largely out of the political spotlight—until fate intervened.
In 2008, at a Gujarat government event, a young academic was called in to fix a glitch in Narendra Modi’s blog. Not only did he solve the problem in minutes, he impressed Modi with his efficiency and technical prowess. That chance encounter would define the next two decades of his life—and transform him into the architect of one of the world’s most formidable political communication machines.
What began with troubleshooting soon escalated into building the digital ecosystem that would power Modi’s political ascent:
- The NaMo website and early blog architecture
- Modi’s multilingual social media presence
- The BJP’s narrative templates for 2014 and 2019
- Rapid-response messaging systems
- The back-end infrastructure of pro-government influencer networks
By 2014, Joshi had migrated to Delhi as Modi stormed to national power. By 2019, he attained a Joint Secretary–level rank, becoming the PMO’s unofficial chief of digital strategy, perception management, and media enforcement.
READ: Haryana Horror: Woman Turns Serial Killer to Stay the ‘Prettiest’
At 55, Biren Joshi has emerged as one of the most enigmatic and influential figures in the Prime Minister’s Office. An electronics professor who reinvented himself as a political strategist, Joshi built his reputation not from public speeches or party rallies, but from mastering the machinery behind them. His core strengths lie in digital architecture, perception engineering, media intimidation, and an almost militant sense of narrative discipline—skills that have made him indispensable to the PMO. Inside South Block, Joshi functions as the de facto gatekeeper to Prime Minister Modi when it comes to anything related to communications or technology. No message moves, no access is granted, and no major narrative is allowed to drift without his direct oversight. Colleagues describe him as obsessively private and ruthlessly efficient, a man whose quiet presence is enough to unsettle editors and news anchors who know the cost of crossing him. Insiders often described him as “the man who knew every newsroom’s pressure points,” the person who could determine which story lived or died.
अचानक से
▪️प्रधानमंत्री के बेहद करीबी रहे OSD हीरन जोशी जिनके इशारों पर मीडिया ताथैया करता रहा, उन्हें एकदम से हटा दिया जाता है
▪️प्रसार भारती के चेयरमैन नवनीत सहगल का यकायेक इस्तीफा हो जाता है
सुनने में आ रहा है – आने वाले दिनों में और इस्तीफे होंगे
👉लेकिन वो क्या चीज़…
— Supriya Shrinate (@SupriyaShrinate) December 4, 2025
AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal accused him in 2022 of ordering private channels to freeze out AAP coverage. Congress’s Pawan Khera took it further this week:
For years, editors whispered about Joshi’s power with a mix of respect and dread. As one senior journalist quipped:
“Anchors are upset. Their Hiren bhai is gone. Now they’ll have to find stories themselves.”
The Mahadev Bombshell: A Scandal Threatening to Breach the PMO Walls
Khera’s most damaging allegation links Joshi to the Mahadev Betting App, a syndicate accused of laundering nearly ₹6,000 crore through hawala networks, cryptocurrency channels, and celebrity deals.
“What betting app did he have a stake in? Who are his business partners?” Khera demanded, suggesting that Joshi may have used his PMO position to facilitate or shield illegal operations.
While Khera has offered no documents yet, the timing is critical: ED arrests, including alleged mastermind Saurabh Chandrakar, have exposed a matrix of political links and alleged payoffs. A ₹200-crore Dubai wedding with celebrity performers has further embarrassed multiple agencies.
Khera also flagged:
- Joshi’s “foreign links”
- His unexplained overseas visits
- The sudden eviction of one of his aides from a government bungalow
- Potential “national security breaches”
“Did Hiren Joshi compromise India’s national interest?” he asked.\
Silence, Speculation, and a Power Shadow That May Be Receding
The BJP has maintained complete silence. Joshi’s official number remains unreachable. No formal announcement has confirmed whether he has been transferred, sidelined, or quietly removed.
In Delhi’s political grapevine, theories flourish.
Some say he fell out of favour after the 2024 election results. Others claim internal power reshuffles forced him out. A few believe he’s been temporarily “parked” until the Mahadev dust settles.
What is undeniable is this: For nearly a decade, Hiren Joshi wielded unprecedented informal power—shaping narratives, disciplining the press, and overseeing the digital architecture of a political behemoth.
Now, with the opposition in attack mode and investigative agencies probing deeper into the Mahadev labyrinth, the man who once decided what 1.4 billion Indians watched, read, and believed may finally be forced into the public glare he carefully avoided.
In Indian politics, even the most formidable shadows eventually flicker.
