Cause and effect

Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi appears to be working hard to live up to the "a cause a day" sobriquet that some members of the Bharatiya Janata Party have bestowed on him. Post his 56-day sabbatical, Gandhi has championed the cause of fishermen in Kerala, jute mill workers in Hooghly, flat buyers in Noida and Kolkata and safai karmacharis (sanitation workers) in Delhi, who had struck work because of non-payment of salaries. After meeting the striking sanitation workers on Saturday, Gandhi reportedly said, "I am ready to dedicate my full life for them; not only a day, a month or a year." He added, "Whenever the poor are suppressed, I'll stand by them." The same day he also met representatives of the Federation of Central Universities' Teachers' Associations to discuss the Centre's alleged attacks on the autonomy of higher education institutions.