During on-ground coverage of the ongoing student protests in Ranchi, journalist Vinayak Dev Trivedi captured intense anger directed not merely at the government, but at digital news outlet News Pinch and its founder, Abhinav Pandey.
As students and young protesters continued their agitation over Jharkhand’s recruitment examination crisis, several of them in Trivedi’s video accused Pandey of acting as a mouthpiece for the Hemant Soren government.
Anger directed at News Pinch
While interacting with the protesters, Trivedi captured their unfiltered reactions to the media’s coverage of their grievances. Much of the crowd’s anger was directed at Pandey, with protesters chanting slogans against News Pinch and accusing the platform of shielding the state government.
Some protesters made a serious allegation against Pandey, claiming on camera that he had allegedly accepted ₹1 lakh to conduct favourable interviews and provide the Soren government with a “clean chit.”
The protesters repeatedly branded Pandey and News Pinch as “Soren Media” and “Sarkar ka media”, accusing the outlet of functioning as an extension of the government’s public relations machinery. The crowd also chanted “Go Back News Pinch”, making it clear that their anger was not confined to the government or the recruitment crisis but had extended to journalists they believe are failing to represent their concerns.
The distrust was further evident in the taunts directed at Pandey. Some protesters mocked him by suggesting that if he was interested in promoting the government rather than questioning it, he should abandon journalism altogether and take up tourism promotion for Jharkhand.
Earlier, Pandey had come under the scanner for a marked contrast in his coverage of the NEET paper leak protests at Jantar Mantar in Delhi vis-a-vis Jharkhand protests. During those protests, Pandey adopted a far more confrontational posture towards the Modi government. He demanded the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and published sharply worded videos portraying the student movement as having forced the government to bend.
The tone in Jharkhand, however, has been markedly different. Thousands of students have been protesting over alleged irregularities in recruitment examinations, including controversies surrounding the JPSC and JSSC-CGL examinations and allegations involving question papers and OMR sheets. Yet, critics argue, News Pinch has not mounted anything comparable to the aggressive campaigns or resignation demands that characterised its coverage of the NEET protests.
Instead, Pandey recently took to social media to highlight the actions taken by the Jharkhand government, writing that the Hemant Soren government was “taking a lesson” from the Jantar Mantar protests. His post focused on arrests, the resignation of the JPSC chairman and other steps taken by the administration, while also questioning why Soren had not recommended a CBI inquiry.
