This week on TV Newsance, the tukde-tukde, anti-national, foreign CIA conspiracy is back! On July 20, nearly one lakh students descended on Jantar Mantar over NEET paper leaks, and TV news had exactly one question: Which foreign hand is behind this? Arnab found the CIA. Sudhir found Kathmandu. Aman Chopra found Pakistan – because when has a protest in India ever just... been about the thing it's protesting?
We break down the same tired four-step formula anchors have used since 2017: first, pick one unhinged bystander and frame his maddest statement as "the essence of the entire protest"; second, edit the whole event to show only one side — how unruly and brutal protesters are; third, tell them the system works but YOU don't; and finally, make sure no one asks who actually failed these students in the first place. But here’s what’s missing:
The use of pellet guns, lathi charges and tear gas on unarmed protestors
The acts of kindness and solidarity between protestors and the very cops sent to control them
How the state unleashed a disproportionate law enforcement response on students demanding accountability
We also go where the cameras conveniently didn't. Because behind the manufactured outrage was a story about pellet guns on Delhi's streets for the first time ever, a protest ground littered with lost shoes, and a crowd that had quietly stopped being about NEET at all.
Watch the full episode to see the story TV news chose not to tell and decide for yourself who actually needs to answer some questions here.
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