The Bihar CM who changed Indian politics forever: BP Mandal and his landmark report

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and late LJP leader and former Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan (File photo)

When Prime Minister VP Singh declared on August 7, 1990, that “27 per cent reservation” would be extended to Other Backward Classes in central services and public sector jobs, few foresaw the storm it would unleash. By the time he formalized it in his Independence Day address, India’s streets were already stirring. The move took the overall quota for OBCs, Scheduled Castes, and Scheduled Tribes to nearly half of all positions -- 49 per cent --  and set off one of the most turbulent phases in modern Indian politics.

Six weeks later, Delhi’s campuses turned into battlegrounds. While many associate Delhi University’s North Campus with the anti-Mandal protests, the most searing image came from the South. On September 19, 1990, Rajiv Goswami, a commerce student of Deshbandhu College, doused himself in fuel and set himself on fire. The following day, newspapers carried the haunting picture of “a thin man in a white T-shirt with black armbands and headbands, engulfed in flames.” It sparked similar acts of despair across India.

The announcement drew from the report of the Backward Classes Commission led by Bhupendra Narayan Mandal, better known as BP Mandal. Appointed by Morarji Desai in December 1978, the commission had spent years studying social and educational backwardness before submitting its report on December 31, 1980. It urged affirmative action for OBCs, citing enduring inequities in education, economy, and representation. Mandal himself would never see its implementation — he passed away on April 13, 1982.

Born on August 25, 1918, in Varanasi into a Yadav landlord family, BP Mandal grew up challenging social hierarchies. He first protested caste prejudice at his school in Darbhanga and later plunged into politics -- serving in the Bihar Assembly and the Lok Sabha. Over the years, he moved between parties: the Congress, the Samyukta Socialist Party, and finally, the Shoshit Dal, which he founded in 1967. The next year, he briefly served as Bihar’s Chief Minister, leading the state’s first OBC-majority ministry. His 47-day government ended with his resignation after he objected to the scrapping of the Aiyar Commission probing corruption.

The “Mandal moment” redrew India’s political map. Regional outfits rooted in backward caste aspirations surged forward. Leaders like Lalu Prasad Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav, long-time disciples of Ram Manohar Lohia, rose to prominence. Mayawati, championing Dalit politics, emerged alongside figures such as Ram Vilas Paswan, Sharad Yadav, and Nitish Kumar. New alliances between Dalits, Adivasis, Muslims, and women began to shape the nation’s social order.

Yet, the backlash was fierce. Upper-caste students took to the streets in protest, while supporters of the policy marched in solidarity. Around the same time, LK Advani’s Ram Janmabhoomi campaign gained momentum, deepening the country’s social fault lines.

The matter soon reached the Supreme Court in Indra Sawhney & Others vs. Union of India. The court upheld the 27 per cent quota but imposed a 50 per cent ceiling on total reservations and carved out the “creamy layer” exclusion for affluent OBCs. By then, VP Singh’s fragile coalition -- propped up by the BJP and the Left -- had begun to unravel. In November 1990, less than a year after taking office, he resigned. His brief 10-month rule remains etched in history -- not only for dethroning Rajiv Gandhi after the Bofors scandal but for unleashing the Mandal wave that forever altered India’s political and social landscape.