In what appears to be a bizarre misuse of public funds, the Ministry of Education has approved a one-month internship programme for Sudarshan News under its Indian Knowledge System (IKS) initiative for 2025–26.

Yes, taxpayer money – meant to nurture research and scholarship – will now bankroll 100 interns at a channel infamous for “bhujiya jihad”, “UPSC jihad” and communal conspiracy theories. A channel whose editor-in-chief Suresh Chavhanke himself faces multiple hate speech cases.

Titled “One-Month Journalism Internship on Reporting Indigenous Knowledge Tradition through Broadcast and Print”, the programme falls under the IKS’s so-called “Edutainment Sciences” theme. Interns will be paid up to Rs 10,000 each, with Sudarshan News itself pocketing Rs 5,000 per intern for operational costs – that’s at least Rs 15 lakh in support for 100 interns.

The irony is blinding. 

Among the 79 selected projects, the rest hosted by IITs and reputed universities, Sudarshan News stands out as the sole media house to be greenlit among the total 372 applications received. 

This is despite IKS guidelines specifying eligibility only for NGOs or trusts “solely working in the research and education related to Indian Knowledge Systems”. How exactly Sudarshan News, which the NBSA has repeatedly found guilty of violating broadcast standards, qualifies under this definition is a question the ministry has yet to answer. The organisation, after all, is better known for hate speech and fake news than any contribution to knowledge, and its work has been described by even the Supreme Court as “rabid”.

Newslaundry has sent a questionnaire to the IKS National Coordinator seeking clarity on the vetting process. This report will be updated if a response is received.

A history of state support

Sudarshan News has long been propped up by taxpayer money. 

RTIs earlier revealed that government ad spending on the channel spiked in 2017, even as other broadcasters faced cuts. In 2019, Newslaundry found the UP government directly sponsoring its programmes.

Now, under the IKS internship scheme, the state is doing more than what it did before: it is funding the grooming of a new batch of interns under the banner of “indigenous knowledge”. 

Pankaj Kumar Jha, head of CSR at Sudarshan, said the programme will draw on “storytelling traditions of ancient India” and even study “journalism in the era of Chandragupta Maurya” or “through figures like Narad Muni”.

Stripped of this rhetoric, the reality is clear. That the government is legitimising and financing a channel whose business model rests on spreading misinformation and reducing journalism to communal propaganda.

For years, Sudarshan News has thrived on stoking communal paranoia.

Its record includes the “UPSC Jihad” show, where Chavhanke claimed Muslims were “infiltrating” India’s civil services. The Supreme Court restrained the broadcast, calling it “divisive propaganda”. Chavhanke later said he was “proud that my show was the first to be banned by the judiciary”.

It includes The Hindu Yuva Vahini oath in December 2021, where Chavhanke exhorted followers to make India a Hindu nation “even if it meant killing or dying”. Despite video evidence, Delhi Police reportedly stalled action.

During the 2020 Delhi riots, Sudarshan News broadcast false claims about a woman being murdered and dumped in the same drain as IB officer Ankit Sharma – fake news later debunked by Alt News and Delhi Police. The channel has routine communal spectacles: On “World Environment Day,” the channel earlier warned of a “Muslim takeover” because of population growth. 

This is the channel the government now wants to pay students to learn journalism from.

Newslaundry sent a questionnaire to Sudarshan News and its chief editor Chavhanke. This copy will be updated if a response is received.

Update at 7 pm on September 23: In a response to Newslaundry’s questions, IKS national coordinator Ganti Suryanarayana Murthy clarified that the grant had been approved for Sudarshan Media Academy, a trust founded by Chavhanke. However, the IKS website did not mention the academy but the channel in its shortlist.

“We selected Sudarshan Media Academy based solely on the merits of their IKS-specific proposal, which is designed to focus exclusively on neutral, evidence-based exploration of traditional Indian knowledge,” it said on Tuesday. Read the full response here.

The Sudarshan academy website does not seem to distinguish between the channel and the institute. “The unique facilities and advance infrastructure of Sudarshan TV Media Academy’s main purpose is to educate and train students from all over country to become accomplished journalists and TV professionals with a nationalist vision. Sudarshan News channel provides every students a great opportunity of practical training and internship programme in live newsroom, PCR, MCR and studio,” reads the about us section.

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