‘Go Back, Godi media’: CJP protesters at Jantar Mantar had no time for TV media

While Instagram, X and YouTube were flooded with videos from the ground, India’s mainstream television news channels – central to what many derogatorily call Godi Media – seemed to be watching an entirely different country.

At around 10:40 am, India Today was discussing whether Gen Z wanted change. Aaj Tak was debating paper leaks and education issues. NDTV was busy with Karnataka politics and the latest moves of the new chief minister, DK Shivakumar. And Republic Bharat was doing god knows what.

But what was remarkable was what wasn't being shown. None of these channels appeared particularly interested in cutting to the live developments dominating social media feeds, namely, the young people gathered at the protest held by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) at Jantar Mantar in Delhi — a movement that began as online satire and has since taken on a life of its own. They had gathered to protest recurring exam paper leaks, including the recent NEET-UG 2026 leak, discrepancies in the CBSE On-Screen Marking (OSM) system, and broader failures in the education system. Their demand was clear: the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

On a day like today, if you wanted to know what was happening in real time at Jantar Mantar, you were more likely to find it on Instagram than on a news channel. However, as the gathering at Jantar Mantar grew in size and scale, some of these Godi media channels began appearing. Suffice to say, they weren’t received well by protesters, who regularly raised “Go Back, Godi Media”, “Godi Media, Hai Hai” or “Godi media chor hai” slogans against them.

Young people at the protest had little patience for Godi media, and they made no effort to hide their disdain. One protester wearing a cockroach mask, when asked whether she was angry with the media, told Newslaundry, “Media se bahut zyaada hai, matlab itni dalal media duniya mein nahi hoga jitna Bharat mein hai.” (I am very angry with the media. I mean, there is no other place in the world with as much ‘broker’ media as there is in India.) 

She added that instead of engaging with the substance of their grievances, Godi media journalists would either engage in “whataboutery” or ask them to spell out the full form of NEET, and that “even if I lack knowledge, it is still my right to raise my voice against any mismanagement in the country.”

Here are a few more instances of protesters expressing their anger towards Godi media:

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