The Congress party reiterated its resolve to work for the welfare of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and said political power was the key to ensuring socio-economic development of the marginalised communities.
Commemorating the formation of the Mandal Commission on December 31, 1978, exactly 40 years back, the party leaders garlanded the statue of Jyotirao Phule on Monday and took out a procession to Ambedkar Bhavan, where they organised a meeting on ‘Mandal Commission and review of OBC development’.
Former Union Minister Chinta Mohan recalled that it was Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao who had issued the first job under this reservation system. Tracing the sequence of events, he explained how the former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and senior advocate K. Parasaran helped revive the law from the brink of getting scrapped in 2014. Dr. Mohan flayed the UGC for trying to twist the benefits that have to go to the OBCs by considering department as a unit, in place of university earlier.
The Praja Ballot conducted on the occasion overwhelmingly supported political reservation for the OBCs.
Youth leader Chinta Bharat, party OBC leaders Ramachandra, Somprakash Yadav and Savitri Yadav took part in the event.