New Delhi, Oct. 27: Rahul Gandhi has become a member of Parliament’s standing committee on human resource development that is grappling with the controversial issue of reservation in higher education.

Rahul has shown interest in education, a key component of the HRD ministry. His budget speech was on primary education; in Amethi, his constituency, he is involved with an NGO which promotes elementary education and self-employment for women and the young.

The Congress leader attended the committee’s meeting on October 18 where members raised the reservation question.

The next meeting is likely to discuss the Veerappa Moily committee report on introducing the 27 per cent quota for other backward classes in government-run higher education institutions. The House committee will then prepare its own report before Parliament’s winter session.

The standing committee is headed by Congress’s Rajya Sabha MP Janardhan Dwivedi, who enjoys Sonia Gandhi’s blessings, and has CPM’s Brinda Karat among its members.

Rahul was earlier a member of the standing committee on home affairs.

Parliamentary committees are reconstituted every year, usually after the monsoon session. A member can swap places with another, but both have to be from the same party and the same House.

Rahul exchanged places with Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy from Andhra Pradesh, another Congress MP in the Lok Sabha.