Out of sight

Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi is often seen as the man who will take up issues of the underdog, even when he is not asked to do so. But as a member of the standing committee of Parliament on human resources development (HRD), where he is supposed to give suggestions for a strong law on the protection of women from sexual harassment at their workplace, he has been less than interested. He has scarcely attended any meetings of the committee, which is chaired by Oscar Fernandes. Not that Gandhi boycotts the standing committee as a matter of habit. He has attended so far a total of three meetings of the committee in the last three years when it met to discuss several other Bills of the HRD ministry, according to members, who don’t, however, complain since a quorum of five is enough for the panel to function.