B. P. Mandal

Bindheshwari Prasad Mandal (1918 – 13 April 1982) was an Indian politician who chaired Mandal Commission which became a major political theme after 1990. He served as 7th Chief Minister of Bihar in the year 1968,but he had resigned after 30 days. He was also a parliamentarian who served as the chairman of the Second Backward Classes Commission (popularly known as the Mandal Commission). B.P. Mandal came from Yadav Community. from Madhepura in Northern Bihar. The commission's report mobilised a segment of the Indian population known as "Other Backward Classes" (OBCs) and initiated a fierce debate on the policy for underrepresented and underprivileged groups in Indian politics.

B. P. Mandal came from the Hindu Yadav community in Bihar. Though born as land owners, the family often faced discrimination as they belonged to "yadav", a caste that was considered low in Bihar's caste hierarchy.

Mandal was a Member of Parliament forMadhepura from the state of Bihar from 1967 to 1970 and from 1977 to 1979.

He was the Chief Minister of Bihar, governing for 30 days in 1968, a period of intense political instability (his predecessor Satish Prasad Singh was the first Chief Minister from OBC but only for three days).

Civil rights commission

In December 1978, Prime Minister Morarji Desai appointed a five-member civil rights commission under the chairmanship of Mandal. The commission's report was completed in 1980 and recommended that a significant proportion of all government and educational places be reserved for applicants from the Other Backward Classes as these were the socially-deprived communities historically that had been treated as outcasts and denied job opportunities as well as proper education in the public institutions that were upper-caste dominant at the time.

The commission's report was tabled indefinitely by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.A decade later, Prime Minister V. P. Singh implemented the recommendations of the Mandal Report and led to what is now known as the caste-reservation system in India.

The Mandal commission was not well-received by a number of upper-caste communities leading to nation-wide protests and uproar especially by the students of Upper-castes who saw their educational opportunities under threat while many of the people from these communities still continue to consider the policies to be unnecessary and biased.

The Government of India issued a stamp in honour of B. P. Mandal in 2001. A college named in his honour, B. P. Mandal Engineering College, was founded in 2007.

Various statues and memorials were made in his memory in the state and one of the most glorious one stands in front of the governor's House in Patna. Every year his birth anniversary is celebrated in a formal ceremonial manner by his son Manindra Kumar Mandal and his other family members in their village and the Chief Minister and other cabinet members of the state in Patna, Sasaram and at various other spots.