“Do kaudi ke”, meaning not even worth two pennies, a common Hindi idiom, recently stirred up a notion in the most unusual way, targeted at teachers. Anjna Om Kashyap caused a major point of contention through her remarks on online educators while hosting Halla Bol, the prime-time news and debate show. Aired on 29th May, 2026, meant to be a debate on the NEET exam but caused an uproar within 24 hours on social media platforms. During the live debate, a senior journalist and Aaj Tak anchor attacked YouTube teachers,
“These YouTube star teachers, who don’t know a thing, pick up a blackboard and start making explainer videos. They’re just doing it for the views. They write sensational headlines, and then they start thinking of themselves as such great masters that some people begin following them because of their drama. They talk about whatever little they know, and on that basis, they extract money. They squeeze money out of students. That is the most worrying part. They have turned education into business for money. What kind of system are we living in? ”
This statement came amid various evident failures in the Indian education system. Students were questioning frequent paper leaks in competitive examinations, including the NEET 2026 paper leak and the major fault in CBSE’s new On-Screen Marking system.
Fault Lines in Education
Held on 3rd May, the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test 2026 for over 22.7 lakh students was scrapped over allegations of paper leak on 12th May, 2026. Once again, NEET-UG faced a credibility crisis as paper leak allegations surfaced. In Rajasthan’s Sikar, India’s top coaching hub, teachers associated with a coaching institute came across a ‘guess paper’ PDF after the exam on 3rd May. Initially dismissed as a fake paper circulated during exam season. Later,r teachers quietly found that 45 questions of the chemistry section in the original question paper matched the PDF being forwarded. Within hours, Rajasthan Police’s Special Operations Group, local police officials and members of central agencies began the investigation in Sikar. CBI arrested the source of the paper leak, P.V. Kulkarni, a Chemistry Lecturer involved on behalf of the National Testing Agency, along with Manisha Mandhare, another expert appointed by NTA after registering the case on 12th May. With the announcement of Re-NEET scheduled for 21st June, 2026, students feel helpless. Immense pressure of studies, financial issues at home, high cost of preparation including coaching and hostel fees, are a cause of stress for aspirants, but such administrative failures push students to take steps as far as suicide. There have been 5 confirmed cases of suicide after the leak, with sources claiming the number to be up to 14 in 2026.
Other government recruitment exams such as SSC, for teaching and police jobs, have been at high risk of leaks. A total of 89 FIRs have been registered over the past 10 years in separate cases over allegations of paper leaks, where 48 cases had re-tests, in 22 cases the exam was cancelled before being conducted, and in the remaining 18 instances only an FIR was registered. Even Class 12 CBSE Board 2026 exams faced OSM failure, which came to light when students who applied for re-evaluation found wrong sheets under their details, unreadable scans and missing pages. A whistleblower, Nisarg Adhikari, also found security vulnerabilities in the website and weaknesses in the evaluation infrastructure. With over 17.8 lakh candidates
Role of YouTube Educators
Mainstream media has been constantly under scrutiny for not covering ground issues effectively and seems to have lost credibility among the young viewers. On the other hand, YouTube educators have been questioning the government and testing agencies for risking students’ future. In a research article in the NCERT Journal, YouTube educational videos were found very effective for long-term memory and self-paced learning. YouTube has helped students from remote areas to get educational opportunities. Since the COVID-19 Lockdown, YouTube has become important for students as it provides an interesting platform to learn. There exists an underlying gap in the quality and quantity of teachers in rural areas, and shadow schooling is becoming a burden on urban households. As the schooling system has been largely unable to provide any preparation for competitive exams, YouTube has proved to be a cost-effective measure.
Reaction that Followed
Anjana’s crude remarks seem to dismiss the contributions of the YouTube educator community in students’ lives. Students reacted to her statement swiftly, mentioning the importance of YouTube teachers in cracking exams and understanding concepts. For these students, quality offline education had remained inaccessible. Many netizens argued their role during the lockdown, when schools and coaching centres had closed their doors. Several educators defended them and their peers by posting their rebuttals online.
Abhinay Sharma from the Abhinay Maths channel responded first publicly; he asked a simple question,
“If YouTube teachers know nothing, then who exactly has been preparing millions of students for JEE, NEET, SSC and UPSC examinations over the past several years? ”
Suman Mam, teaching from Ocean Gurukul, highlighted that she runs free marathon classes for students who cannot afford anything else, but a new anchor from her air-conditioned studio calls her and her peers fraud. She also pointed out the TRP ratings being chased on primetime television, disregarding real issues like paper leaks and unemployment.
Most popular Khan Sir from Khan Global Studies also responded, saying,
“Tu apna gyaan apne paas rakh.” (Keep your knowledge with yourself)
In another video, he questioned her independence and used expressions like ‘talve chaatna’ and ‘dalali’ to characterise her conduct as a journalist.
Another educator, Babita Tyagi, running ICS coaching, criticised her remarks by questioning her professionalism. She said if teachers are not worth pennies, then journalists these days are of lesser worth than a penny. She also quoted her reports of Jhalmuri and its oil, Melody chocolates and naming a Bangladeshi buffalo Donald Trump.
Defamation as a Silencing Tool
After immense backlash, Anjana Om Kashyap filed a 2 crore civil defamation case at Delhi High Court against Faisal Khan, better known as Khan Sir. The suit alleges he made scandalous, false and grossly defamatory statements against her. He had allegedly used terms such as “bikau patrakar”, “chatukar”, “dalali” and “fake news ki dukan”, referring to the remarks she made labelling him and his peers worthless. Abhinay Sharma, Babita Tyagi, Arvind Bhadauriya, 4 PM News Network and several X accounts were also included.
All this dispute amidst examination failures when online educators are the ones to voice student demands, whereas mainstream media remains obsessed with high TRP ratings, dramatic news and sensation over substance. In one instance, media became a national embarrassment for flooding the public with fake news during the India-Pakistan tensions in early May, 2025, fuelling mass anxiety and misleading citizens to garner views. Expected to address psychological distress and uncertainty among students regarding exams by questioning the government, a media channel is busy muzzling educators using defamation.
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