 In 1980, the commission's report affirmed the affirmative action practice under Indian law, whereby additional members of lower castes—the other backward classes—were given exclusive access to another 27 percent of government jobs and slots in public universities, in addition to the 23 percent already reserved for the Dalits and Tribals.When V. P. Singh's administration tried to implement the recommendations of the Mandal Commission in 1989, massive protests were held in the country.Many alleged that the politicians were trying to cash in on caste-based reservations for purely pragmatic electoral purposes.