If the Mandal Commission’s recommendations had been accepted and chain residential institutes opened for OBC students aspiring to take up professional courses, they would have entered the IITs and IIMs with much greater confidence and fared better. The need for reservations would, consequently, have gradually tapered off. But now, even after half a century of reservations, when the third generation of SC/ST candidates are entering these professional colleges, their need for a crutch is as acute as that of their predecessors, and the parents of those predecessors.

And its impact on society at large has been worse. The line dividing the reserved from the non-reserved categories, instead of blurring, has deepened, generating mutual hostility. Our politicians refuse to learn from history. Does such gimmicks really pay electoral dividends? How many times did V.P. Singh get re-elected after reserving 27 per cent berths for OBCs?

The writer was secretary, Mandal Commission. Write to him at satyagil@hotmail.com