Storm created by Mandal Commission poses serious threat to V.P. Singh's political survival

Rajeev Goswami in flames: Sparking off a chain reactionThe crisis, the likes of which has rarely engulfed the nation with such overwhelming intensity and rage, was of his own making and, as it mounted with increasing ferocity, Prime Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh found himself facing it almost alone. The very people who had pushed him into taking the controversial decision were nowhere to be seen.Having taken the big bite from the forbidden apple of the Mandal Commission, Singh found himself unable to swallow it or to spit it out. Even as he found himself paralysed in grappling with the consequences of the hasty decision he had made, his government watched in stunned horror as city after city exploded in violent anti-Mandal demonstrations and had to be put under curfew.That a severe dysfunction had afflicted the Government was evident from the fact that while Singh was absorbing the flak, Home Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed who is responsible for law and order was virtually in hiding.The capital was abuzz with rumours of Singh's resignation. And they were not entirely without basis. Political enemies within and outside his own party had begun to scheme his overthrow. Opposition leader Rajiv Gandhi called for Singh's resignation for his "obstinacy and obduracy," and passed the word through emissaries that his party would be willing to support a government headed by any other person.Anti-reservation riots in ChandigarhSenior Janata Dal leader Chandra Shekhar met President R. Venkataraman on the evening of September 24, shortly after Singh had himself paid a visit to Rashtrapati Bhawan. Using the sequence of events to their benefit, Chandra Shekhar's supporters spread the word that Singh was on his way out.Adding fuel to the crisis, Janata Dal Chief Ministers Biju Patnaik, Chimanbhai Patel and Mulayam Singh Yadav arrived suddenly in New Delhi. And in a significant development, several party members including ministers Maneka Gandhi and Jagdeep Dhankar, and prominent MPs like Yashwant Sinha called for a meeting of the National Front Parliamentary Board. Over a period of less than 24 hours, more than a dozen meetings, including three of the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs were held. The key players were Chandra Shekhar, Devi Lal and dethroned Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala.While the prime minister's foes were plotting against him in secret conclaves held over two days in a government-owned five-star hotel, his supporters like Arun Nehru were urging him to see reason and resist factional pulls. But Singh dug in his heels. In an emotional speech on national television, he reiterated his resolve to implement the Mandal Commission recommendations. "I wish to make it clear," he said, "that should a situation arise in which I have to choose between a cause that I believe in so intensely, and my chair I will not hesitate for an instant to choose the former."Yet, despite V.P. Singh's bravado, it was obvious that the virulence of the agitation, throwing together as it did some of his most ardent supporters - large sections of the urban middle class, students, professionals, lawyers and the press - had taken him by utter surprise. When the agitation began a month ago, it was in the form of scattered protests. Buses and trains were burnt. Traffic was blocked. There were police firings and lathi charges. And the inevitable deaths. Still, political pundits insisted the agitation would die down. The agitationists belonged to the middle class and could never keep up the momentum, so the argument went.And indeed, for a time the agitation did subside. Only to burst with renewed force into the consciousness of a horrified nation on September 19. That day, Rajeev Goswami, a Delhi University student, set himself on fire, sustaining 50 per cent burns (see box). If the anti-Mandal agitation was looking for a novel form of protest, Goswami provided it. In quick succession, youths in a series of cities - Delhi, Hissar, Sirsa, Ambala, Lucknow, Gwalior, Kota, Ghaziabad - set themselves on fire.Enraged by the reports of self-immolation attempts and police brutality, the anti-Mandal agitation flared up again, spreading to more cities, intensifying in violence.In the capital, agitating students blocked one of the most important traffic intersections, naming it Qurbani Chowk and turning it into a mini-Tiananmen Square. For days, they disrupted traffic until in a predawn swoop, a huge posse of policemen cleared the square and arrested about a thousand students.Next day, the students, in an attempt to recapture the square, engaged the police in pitched battles. When a lathi charge and tear gas failed to disperse the students, the police opened fire. Two were killed.Students storm BJP office in DelhiIn Chandigarh, agitators burnt hundreds of government vehicles, buildings and offices. Finally the army had to be called out - the first time since Operation Bluestar in 1984. The army was also mobilised in about a dozen other towns, including Ambala and Sirsa, Kurukshetra and Rohtak. In unambiguous terms, the anti-reservationists had signalled to V.P. Singh and the National Front Government that they meant serious business.If V.P. Singh was obstinate in sticking to his position, it was because of his reckoning that the anti-reservationists were hopelessly outnumbered by pro-reservationists and that if it came to the crunch, the backward castes could be brought on to the streets.There was at least some basis for his calculations. For most of south India, barring a few protests in Andhra Pradesh, the Mandal Commission was a non-issue. Even in Bihar, which has witnessed some of the most violent anti-Mandal Commission riots, the pro-reservationists later hit the streets in full force, overwhelming the anti-reservationists. In Gujarat, the agitation remained low-key. And in Punjab, barring Chandigarh and a few towns, the agitation evoked little response.If the situation in these states was anything to go by, it appeared that V.P. Singh's political gamble would pay off. But like Indira Gandhi who underestimated the determination of the agitating students in 1974 and of the students who led the Assam movement, V.P. Singh seemed to have made a serious miscalculation.For the students at the forefront of the anti-Mandal Commission agitation were in no mood for a compromise. On the eve of their exit from academia, what mattered most to them was a secure job. And that is what Mandal threatened to take away. The prime minister's assurance that the Mandal Commission's recommendations would not apply to educational institutions, promotions in government jobs, recruitment to the army and paramilitary forces meant nothing to students. Sushil's familyNor did his decision to ask party President S.R. Bommai and Union Minister of State for Communications Janeshwar Mishra to initiate a dialogue with students improve matters.Almost overnight, campuses across the Hindi belt were politicised. Students for whom Hindi films were staple fare eloquently discussed why Laloo Prasad Yadav is for reservations while Chimanbhai Patel is against it. But while the politicisation may have been welcome, the agitation also sharply divided students along caste lines. Said Harinder Kumar, a political science research scholar: "We used to have Hindu College vs St Stephens or Miranda House vs Lady Sriram College rivalries. Now they are forcing us to think on caste lines." Rajiv Sharma, an intern in King George Medical College, Lucknow, echoed that point: "Ever since the Mandal Commission report was announced and our agitation started, our Yadav and Gujjar friends have stopped talking to us."But in most places, barring the occasional clash, the backward castes stayed off the streets leaving the field open for the anti-Mandal Commission agitators. At Delhi University, normally apolitical students braved police lathi charges to participate in protest rallies. When a speaker at a Delhi college seminar questioned the students' use of violence, a girl sprang up to scream: "This Government listens only to bullets. We are only breaking glasspanes."Agitation proved a swift and effective political teacher. At many places, students have been quick to see through the efforts of political parties to exploit them. In Delhi, when BJP President L.K. Advani and MP Madan Lal Khurana visited Safdarjang Hospital to see the parents of Rajeev Goswami, students hooted them away. Advani was told to first denounce the Mandal Commission report, something he couldn't do since the party's election manifesto is committed to its implementation. Instead, he said he was opposing the police brutality. Said Devesh Kumar Singh, a second year law student: "They want to have their cake and eat it too. Only those publicly against the Mandal Commission can join us."In Himachal Pradesh, BJP Chief Minister Shanta Kumar's attempt to use the students backfired. His open opposition to the Mandal Commission emboldened students to come out on the streets in the upper Himachal region but it led to a backlash by pro-reservationists in the lower Himachal region. The result: a spate of violence alien to the peace-loving state.Army patrolling in Kurukshetra: High tensionOther parties too hedged their bets. The Congress(I) did not condemn the Mandal report but party MP S.S. Ahluwalia and senior leader Subhash Chopra openly associated with Delhi University agitators. And in Bihar, Aditya Narain Singh, an upper caste Congress(I) legislator, led a violent rally against Yadavs.Still, at least in some places, the students' movement was infiltrated by lumpen elements and politicians. As in Haryana, where former chief minister Om Prakash Chautala's Green Brigade exploited the agitation brazenly.While students stopped traffic on the highway in protest against the Mandal Commission's recommendations, Green Brigade activists raised slogans against the ouster of Devi Lal from the Union Cabinet. And Mahendra Singh Tikait, Devi Lal's ally at present, abandoned his normal anti-urban and anti-English positions to address a student meeting in Delhi.But even these cynical attempts to exploit the agitation were an acknowledgement of the students' power - and of their ability to change political equations all over the country. With none of the political parties willing to sit together and arrive at a national consensus, it was evident that the country was heading towards another round of instability.What was worse, while the agitation had succeeded in shaking the minority government headed by V.P. Singh, there was no guarantee that any other combination of political leaders or parties would be able to survive the storm unleashed by Mandal.- Pankaj Pachauri and Philip George with Farzand Ahmed in Patna, Dilip Awasthi in Lucknow and bureau reports Published By: AtMigration Published On: Oct 15, 1990 00:00 IST--- ENDS ---

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Storm created by Mandal Commission poses serious threat to V.P. Singh's political survival

Escalating by the day, the agitation against the Mandal Commission shook the Government to its very innards, threatening its survival and changing political equations. And even as that caste confrontation built up, the BJP's Rath Yatra brought another threat to the Government.

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