Tumble after Mandal: How VP Singh's caste gambit cost him PM's chair

India Today

05-05-2025

The Narendra Modi-led Centre's announcement that caste will be counted as part of the nationwide population Census, a first since 1931, has political pundits trying to gauge the potential implications of the move. The announcement has started heated debates on caste-based politics, policies and their ramifications. Could the upcoming National Census bring the next big rejig in India's political sphere, like the Mandal Commission implementation by then Prime Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh in 1990? With the move, VP Singh attempted to counter the temple politics of a rising BJP and change the caste arithmetic in the Janata Party's favour. However, he ended up unleashing a political storm that threw him off the PM's chair.advertisementVP Singh's decision to implement the Mandal Commission report can be called the biggest step in caste politics in Independent India. It reserved 27% of central government jobs and seats in public universities for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs).Singh's move triggered nationwide protests against quotas, with Delhi student Rajiv Goswami setting himself on fire, and a string of such self-immolation bids, and protesters consuming poison and hanging themselves.
The Mandal move soon alienated key constituencies of VP Singh, and fractured his already shaky government. It cut short his term to just less than a year (December 1989 to November 1990).This is how the biggest caste move on the national stage before the announcement of a caste census shaped politics and brought the downfall of the then prime minister, VP Singh.VP SINGH'S MANDAL MOMENT: OBCs GET 27% RESERVATIONadvertisementOn August 7, 1990, PM VP Singh, leading the National Front coalition government, announced the implementation of the Mandal Commission's recommendations, which proposed a 27% reservation of seats in public universities and central government jobs and public sector undertakings (PSUs).The National Front government, formed in 1989, comprised parties like the Janata Dal, AGP, DMK, and TDP, and was running with the outside support of the BJP and the Left Front.
Vishwanath Pratap Singh's Janata Dal government, with Devi Lal (L) as Deputy Prime Minister, was also supported by the Telugu Desam Party led by NT Rama Rao (R). (India Today Archives)
VP Singh was leading a non-Congress government, and it was, in fact, the first non-Congress government that commissioned a study on OBCs.The commission, chaired by BP Mandal, was formed in 1979 on the orders of PM Morarji Desai of the Janata Party. The Mandal Commission identified OBCs as comprising 52% of India's population and suggested affirmative action to address historical caste discrimination.The Mandal Commission submitted its report in 1980.advertisementSingh's decision to implement the recommendations, increasing total reservations to 49.5% (including SCs and STs), was seen as a historic step toward social justice."Caste, for 5,000 years, has been the basis of unbridled torture and ostracisation. Now, it has become the basis of justice," VP Singh said.BEHIND VP SINGH'S MANDAL IMPLEMENTATIONHowever, Singh's monumental step, aimed at uplifting OBCs, was seen more as an attempt at political survival. Singh was not only leading a minority government but also faced opposition from within his own party and the coalition he led.Facing tensions with his deputy, Devi Lal, Singh sought to neutralise the Haryana leader's influence among backward castes of North India.Lalu Prasad Yadav, then a key ally, soon claimed credit for pushing Singh toward this decision.The RJD supremo, in his memoir, Gopalganj to Raisina: My Political Journey, co-authored with journalist Nalin Verma, claimed that he had advised VP Singh to implement the Mandal Commission report."There is a way out... The Mandal Commission gave its report in 1983, recommending a 27% quota for the backward classes in government jobs. The recommendation is gathering dust in your office. Implement it with immediate effect," Lalu claimed he told VP Singh, the then PM.
Vishwanath Pratap Singh, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, IK Gujral, Devi Lal, LK Advani and Atal Vihari Vajpayee during an all-party rally in Ludhiana. (India Today Archive)
advertisementYet the timing of Singh's announcement, made just before Devi Lal's kisan (farmers') rally, was initially hailed as a masterstroke. Aimed at consolidating the backward castes into a new vote bank, but the lack of broader consultation ultimately proved fatal.Singh informed allies like the BJP's LK Advani and the Left's Harkishan Singh Surjeet only after the decision was finalised, alienating crucial supporters.150 STUDENTS TRIED TO SELF-IMMOLATION, PROTESTS RAGEDThe implementation of the Mandal Commission recommendations sparked immediate and ferocious opposition, particularly in northern and western India, where upper-caste youths saw their job prospects threatened.Anti-Mandal protests became a norm on the streets. Students blocked roads, shut down schools and colleges. Things got extreme when Rajiv Goswami, a 19-year-old Delhi University student, set himself on fire on September 19, 1990. He became the face of the agitation. Hundreds of others, like Monica Chadha, followed suit.advertisement"Today, I want to teach a lesson to VP. Singh. I am proud of what I have done [this]", 19-year-old student, Chadha, who was one of the 150 students and teenagers who, since the Mandal implementation, attempted to kill themselves by immolation, consuming poison or by hanging, was quoted as saying in The Los Angeles Times.These acts galvanised upper-caste resentment, with protests marked by bandhs, hartals, and dharnas. Public life took a hit. The backlash wasn't just societal, it turned political, given PM VP Singh's shaky government and some hostile allies.
The October 1990 cover of India Today Hindi featured Rajeev Goswami, the student who attempted self-immolation against the implementation of Mandal Commission recommendations. (India Today Archive)
The BJP (with 85 Lok Sabha seats), a key supporter of Singh's minority government, withdrew support, citing the divisive nature of the decision.The BJP was growing with its Ayodhya Ram Mandir movement and seeking to unite its vote base under the bigger Hindutva umbrella. The Mandal move has also been seen by experts as Singh's bid to counter the BJP's Mandir politics.advertisementLK Advani's Rath Yatra intensified communal tensions. Following Advani's arrest on October 23, 1990, in Bihar by the Lalu Prasad Yadav's Janata Party government prompted the BJP to withdraw support from VP Singh's government. The CPI(M), a natural champion of affirmative action for the backwards, said it chose class-based struggles over caste-based mobilisation.Within the Janata Party, factionalism, led by Devi Lal and Chandra Shekhar, weakened Singh's position further. Chandra Shekhar was eyeing the prime minister's chair, and became the next PM.By November 1990, Singh's government collapsed after a no-confidence vote (142–346). The government led by VP Singh, which had a term till 1995, collapsed in just 343 days.After VP Singh resigned, PM Chandra Shekhar's short-lived government kept the reservation issue on hold. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court paused OBC reservations after a challenge by advocate Indira Sawhney in 1990. By 1991, PV Narasimha Rao's Congress government continued the Mandal policy but tried to pacify upper castes by adding a 10% quota for the economically weaker among them.
After VP Singh resigned as prime minister, Chandra Shekhar (right) became the PM with the support of Rajiv Gandhi's Congress, despite leading a breakaway Janata Party faction with just 64 MPs. (India Today Archive)
In November 1992, the Supreme Court upheld the 27% OBC reservation but struck down the 10% upper-caste quota. It also capped total reservations at 50% and excluded the "creamy layer" from quota benefits.Although VP Singh's Mandal moment lit a fire for social justice, it burned his political fortunes in the process.The agitation empowered OBC leaders like Lalu Yadav in Bihar, and Mulayam Singh Yadav in Uttar Pradesh.Regional caste-based parties, with entrenched identities that we see to this day, gained a great deal. Despite fulfilling a bold promise to the OBCs that no other leader dared touch, VP Singh was never fully embraced by the castes he gave benefits to. He was also abandoned by the upper castes.The 2025 caste census announcement signals the BJP's bid to reclaim the caste narrative from the opposition, which revived it in 2023 and used it in the 2024 general election to dent the ruling party's electoral fortunes. VP Singh's Mandal moment is a reminder of the unintended consequences of big caste moves, some of which came at a steep cost.Tune InMust Watch