Question

Why had Mandal Commission become a major issue in 1980 in India and how does it came to an end

Answer 1

Mandal Commission, or the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes Commission (SEBC), was established in India on 1 January 1979 by the Janata Party government under Prime Minister Morarji Desai [l with a mandate to "identify the socially or educationally backward classes" of India.[2] It was headed by the late B.P. Mandal an Indian parliamentarian, to consider the question of reservations for people to redress castediscrimination, and used eleven social, economic, and educational indicators to determine backwardness. In 1980, based on its rationale that OBCs ("Other backward classes") identified on the basis of caste, economic and social indicators comprised 52% of India's population, the Commission's report recommended that members of Other Backward Classes (OBC) be granted reservations to 27 per cent of jobs under the Central government and public sector undertakings, thus making the total number of reservations for SC, ST and OBC to 49%.[3][1]

Though the report had been completed in 1983, the V.P. Singh government declared its intent to implement the report in August 1990, leading to widespread student protests.[4] It was thereafter provided a temporary stay order by the Supreme court, but implemented in 1992 in the central government.