Third Eye: Political whisper, curious case of Badrinath, and synergy missing

Political Whisper: NCP-SP's Lok Sabha MP Supriya Sule was talking to media persons in Pune on Monday when a middle-rung party worker tried to whisper something in her ear. Sule loudly told him not to speak in front of the media mikes as they are 'sensitive' and 'catch every word'. She reminded him of CM Eknath Shinde's gaffe earlier. Sule was referring to CM's press conference a few months ago when Shinde, not realising that the mikes were on while he was talking about the Maratha issue, asked deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis before the PC, "We just need to speak and leave, right?." "Learn from others' mistakes," Sule jokingly admonished the functionary and everyone laughed.

Curious Case of Badrinath
The case of Badrinath assembly seat in Uttarakhand is a curious one as Congress has retained the seat despite its sitting MLA defecting to BJP ahead of Lok Sabha polls, forcing a bypoll. Many think it is poetic justice as three-time MLA Rajendra Singh Bhandari, who had switched to BJP only on March 17, lost to Congress' first timer Lakhpat Singh Butola by 5,224 votes. Simmering ground-level dissatisfaction apart, his defection also did not go down well with the electorate. Buzz is that CM Pushkar Dhami had advised against Bhandari's candidature.


Synergy Missing
The Centre's high-level panel on exam reforms, set up in the aftermath of NEET-UG fiasco, recently inducted two IIT Kanpur academics from its famed computer science department, apparently to advise it on online exams. However, there is a telling gap - there isn't a single expert from the school/board exam system in the panel. In fact, buzz is that very little conversation happens between the school and higher education departments of the education ministry despite NEP underlining the need for 'synergy across all bodies involved in education'.