Devil’s Advocate continues ………….

The Mandal Commission or the Socially Backward Classes Commission was established on 1 January 1979 by the Janata Party government under Prime Minister Charan Singh. Its aim was to identify the ‘socially or economically backward classes’ of India. B.P. Mandal, an Indian parliamentarian, headed the commission to consider the question of reservation for such categories of people who had suffered for centuries on account of caste discrimination. By using eleven social, economic and educational indicators to determine backwardness, the commission in 1980 submitted its report recommending that a new category of the Indian population should be identified, namely, Other Backward Classes (OBC), which comprised 51 per cent of India’s population. The commission further recommended that 27 per cent of jobs under the Central government and public sector undertakings should be reserved for OBCs, thereby making the total percentage of reservations a whopping 49 per cent of government jobs.

The commission’s recommendations were pending implementation for about seven years when in August 1990 the Janata Dal government led by V.P. Singh declared its intent to implement them.

The criticism and reaction to the proposed implementation were sharp and severe. Student protests were particularly serious and widespread. The protests started in Delhi University and spread all over the country. At the time I was serving as deputy commissioner of police, south district, in Delhi. And it so happened that the area under my jurisdiction became the epicentre of these protests.

On 19 September 1990, students of Deshbandhu College and Bhagat Singh College—both under my jurisdiction— were protesting by throwing brickbats at public transport and blocking traffic. I reached the spot with police reserves and tried to control the mob. In our presence, Rajeev Goswami, a student of Deshbandhu College, tried to commit self- immolation in protest against the government’s intent to implement the Mandal Commission’s recommendations. My men managed to save him by quickly putting a blanket over him.


To be Continued ………….