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can well be argued that V.P.Singh could have ordered the inquiry in
1987 with Rajiv Gandhi's consent; that Rajiv Gandhi need not have
regarded it as a frontal challenge to his authority; that V.P.Singh
could have consulted Advani on the Mandal; question since the
survival of his minority government was critically dependent on the
BJP's support from the outside and the BJP had committed itself to
implementation of the report in its election manifesto; and that
there was no good reason for him to rush this decision just because
a rival peasant leader in his own party, Devi Lal, was holding a
mass rally in New Delhi two days later.
On the question of the Mandal
Commission report, it is difficult to be sure whether V.P.Singh
acted out of panic in the face of a challenge by his former deputy
prime minister, Devi Lal, or out of calculation that the rally gave
him a pretext to silence dissent among his Cabinet colleagues and
allies. Be that as it may, the ferocity of opposition to the
decision among students, though in addition to resorting to methods
of protest including attacking public property, usual in India, took
to acts of self-immolation in their dozens, speaks as much of the
potency of the fire V.P.Singh had stoked as does his lionization as
the second Buddha by Mandal enthusiasts.
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