—Dr. Devaraju Maharaju First recipient of the Kaviraju Tripuraneni Ramaswamy National Award As children, we read in our history lessons about the war between Alexander and Purushottam (Porus). We learned that the war took place between the Jhelum and Chenab rivers. That is as far as it went — nobody told us the background of that war. Those events, which held great importance for compassion, human values, and morality, have indeed been recorded in history. Historians noted them in the texts they wrote. But those details never reached ordinary people. No attempt was made to bring them into school textbooks and use them to shape children into better citizens. We have often discussed among ourselves how Buddhism was destroyed while the Vedic religion grew stronger. Raksha Bandhan, too, is an important event that entered public life from Buddhism! How so? For that, we must go back to the time of the war between Alexander and Porus, which took place in June, 326 BCE. Alexander, a discip...
T. Chiranjeevulu IAS(Ret) , Founder & President BCIF(BC Intellectuals Forum) If the Mandal Commission was a historic turning point in India's fight for social justice for backward classes, the Justice G. Rohini Commission was an attempt to answer the question: are the reservation benefits going to OBCs after Mandal reaching all castes equally? Between these two commissions lies nearly three and a half decades of socio-political journey. From Mandal to Rohini Under Article 340 of the Indian Constitution, commissions may be set up to study the condition of socially and educationally backward classes. In this context, the Second Backward Classes Commission was formed in 1979 under the chairmanship of B.P. Mandal. Based on the Mandal Commission's report, the decision to provide 27% reservation to OBCs in central government jobs was taken in 1990. The Supreme Court examined the constitutional questions related to this policy in the Indra Sawhney vs. Union of India case ...