Newslaundry has spent considerable time telling India that workers should not be made to work longer hours in the name of productivity. But accounts emerging from its own former employees expose the hypocrisy of the leftist rag which seems to believe that the principle does not apply inside Newslaundry.
In a 2024 episode of its Let Me Explain series, published in collaboration with The News Minute, Newslaundry took aim at Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy’s call for a 70-hour work week. The episode was bluntly titled “Narayana Murthy is wrong: Indians are working too long and hard already.”
The argument was that Indians were already working excessively long hours and that making them work even more was neither the solution to India’s productivity problem nor good for workers.
The episode called the 70-hour proposal “misguided”, “dangerous”, “anti-poor” and “anti-women”.
It claimed that productivity does not come from simply increasing working hours, but from fixing systemic problems such as poor infrastructure, inadequate investment in skills and technology, and inefficient work systems.
The video also made a particularly strong argument about women. It pointed out that women already carry a disproportionate share of unpaid domestic work and argued that longer working hours would place an additional burden on them.
Newslaundry’s position, therefore, was clear: workers should not be expected to sacrifice their lives and well-being simply because an employer or industrialist believes longer hours mean greater productivity.
But now comes the awkward part.
Former Producer Says Safety Came Second To Late-Night Work
Former Newslaundry producer Bhadra Mahapatra has come forward with an account of her time at the organisation, describing it as “by far the most toxic place” she had worked, particularly when it came to safety.
Mahapatra said that during her first month of probation, she was assigned to cover the JNU presidential elections. She stayed at the assignment until around 11 pm before leaving after informing her colleagues because she had to travel to Noida.
According to her, her manager reacted angrily the following day, questioning who had given her permission to leave and telling her that she could not leave a location without his approval.
She said he did not even ask whether she had reached safely.
What followed, according to Mahapatra, was a pattern of staying alone in the office to edit stories and taking private cabs home after midnight.
“We are reimbursed monetarily, but no safety is given,” she wrote.
On one occasion, she said she felt unsafe throughout a cab journey and could only hope that she reached home safely.
Eventually, Mahapatra said she decided that she would not stay back at the office beyond 10 pm and would instead take the metro. She claimed that this decision brought backhanded comments from colleagues about her leaving “so early”.
Her response was simple: “But I choose my safety over career, growth.”
Many ex employees, especially women employees are sharing their experiences, and I am so proud of them.
It has encouraged me to share my ordeal as well.
P.s it will be a long thread. https://t.co/PF9qEsGnDb— bhadramahapatra (@bhadra_04) August 13, 2026
Newslaundry Preached Work Pressure. Then Left Its Own Producer Alone At Midnight.
Newslaundry built an entire episode around shaming Narayana Murthy for suggesting a 70-hour work week. The channel positioned itself as the moral authority on how workers should be treated – safe, protected, never overburdened. But it never practiced what it preached in the first place.
Newslaundry has built its brand holding other organisations to account for everything under the sun. It has never extended that same scrutiny inward. Mahapatra’s account, and the wave of former employees now speaking up alongside her, suggest that omission was not accidental.
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