For a journalist who claims to champion science, Priyanka Pulla has spent an awful lot of time peddling falsehoods. The Bengaluru-based freelance writer, whose work has appeared in The Wire, Science Magazine, the BMJ, and Mint, has built her career on a single-minded mission: tearing down India’s achievements.
And she has had plenty of help doing it.
Multiple grants from the Thakur Family Foundation (TFF) have kept her afloat. The foundation’s money has consistently financed a stream of reporting that attacks India’s pharmaceutical industry, its drug regulator, and its indigenous vaccines.
Pulla has disclosed these grants, but that transparency only confirms what her work makes obvious—her independence was never the point.
The Covaxin Hit Job
Between 2020 and 2022, Pulla was a key figure behind a series of 14 reports published by The Wire, all targeting Bharat Biotech and its COVID-19 vaccine, Covaxin.
The articles were relentless, questioning the vaccine’s safety and integrity without substantial evidence. Bharat Biotech, fed up with the smear campaign, filed a defamation suit seeking ₹100 crore in damages.
The courts intervened decisively. A judge ordered The Wire to take down all 14 articles and barred the publication from running further “defamatory articles” on Covaxin and Bharat Biotech. It was a stinging legal defeat. But Pulla ignored the ruling. On X, she continued her crusade, propping up Pfizer while trashing Bharat Biotech, as if the court’s judgment meant nothing.
Sabotaging Trust in India’s Drug Regulator
Pulla’s attacks were not confined to one company. She turned her attention to the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO), India’s drug regulatory authority. Since 2018, the CDSCO has approved over 200 new drugs and vaccines, following protocols aligned with World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. Yet in Pulla’s Thakur-funded narratives, the CDSCO was repeatedly depicted as a corrupt and compromised body.
Her agenda reached new lows when she wrote for the BMJ, publishing a piece titled “How COVID-19 Vaccines Exposed India’s Adverse Events Reporting System.”
The article was a masterclass in cherry-picking, using incomplete data to manufacture a crisis. She disclosed her TFF funding in the competing interests section—a perfunctory admission that only confirmed the biases baked into her reporting. Some samples of her ‘fabulous’ reporting are displayed below:
Siding with Pakistan During Operation Sindoor
Pulla’s hostility toward India is not limited to pharmaceuticals. When India carried out Operation Sindoor, striking nine terror camps inside Pakistan after the Pahalgam attack, she did what no patriotic journalist would. She took to X and declared that Pakistan’s counter-claims were correct and that India was spreading fake news. She accused the BJP of “scolding people for not believing its fake news,” turning the truth on its head and siding with India’s enemies.
Mocking Hindu Sentiments at Mahakumbh
Her disdain for Indian culture came into full view during the Mahakumbh. Instead of reporting on the religious significance of the event, she reduced it to a “germ breeding ground” and accused the Uttar Pradesh government of deception. She mocked the government’s statement about the Purna Kumbh occurring once in a lifetime, dismissing a belief held by millions of Hindus as a lie.
It was a calculated insult to Hindu religious sentiments, packaged as public health reporting.
She accused the Uttar Pradesh government of ‘lying’ to the public by claiming that the Mahakumbh is a once-in-a-lifetime event, and ridiculed the religious significance attached to the Purna Kumbh cycle and Hindu beliefs.
A Paid Agenda, Not Journalism
The pattern is unmistakable. Pulla has used her platform to oppose every Indian milestone, whether it is indigenous vaccines, the country’s regulatory institutions, military operations, or religious traditions. The Thakur Family Foundation funded her, and she delivered exactly what they paid for.
This is not independent journalism. It is a sustained campaign of misinformation, and the public deserves to see it for what it is.
This article is based on an X thread by Brown Sepoys.
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