Delhi Confidential: After a year’s gap, PM Modi’s ‘Pariksha Pe Charcha’ goes offline again

Tips, offline: After a year’s gap, ‘Pariksha Pe Charcha’, the annual event during which Prime Minister Narendra Modi holds an interaction with selected students, parents and teachers on handling exam stress, is set to be held offline again. In 2021, the event had moved online due to the pandemic. This time, it will be held at Delhi’s Talkatora Stadium on April 1. Like the first three editions, the April 1 event will also be interactive in nature with students, picked from among 15.7 lakh who had registered, getting to speak to the PM in person.

The beard: On Thursday, Malayalam actor Suresh Gopi, a BJP Rajya Sabha member, came prepared to flag the inability of many to claim benefits under the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) in Kerala’s Kannur. As he stood up to make his intervention with the customary greeting to the chair, Venkaiah Naidu said, “Aap mask pehne hai, ya ye aapki beard hai? (Are you wearing a mask or sporting a beard?)”, leaving the House in splits. “Beard, beard… this is my new look, Sir,” Gopi responded with a smile. “For the next film,” Naidu said in a lighter vein.

Looking South: IUML Rajya Sabha MP from Kerala Abdul Wahab had Rajya Sabha in splits as he took a dig at Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw as well as his own colleagues during the debate on the Railway budget. He said: “Today everyone is praising the Railway Minister – even Brittas (CPM member John Brittas), although I don’t know why?” Referring to the controversy about the Railway Budget being larger for Northern railways than Southern Railways, Wahab added that the South was discriminated against not only in India but the entire world – from South India to South America.