One of the most significant of his pioneering initiatives at the national level was his formulation and initializing of the developmental concept and instrument of the Special Component Plan for Scheduled Castes (SCP) in 1978, as a means of enhancing, in physical as well as financial terms,  the flow of developmental benefits to the SCs, and as a means of securing their economic liberation; educational equality at all levels of education; equality in all parameters of development, welfare and life; and their social dignity. This has since become part of the developmental philosophy and mechanism both in the Centre and in the States. This has been buttressed by the instrumentality of the Special Central Assistance (SCA) to the States’ Special Component Plans for SCs, conceived by him in 1978.  His efforts brought into existence the scheme of Central Assistance for State Scheduled Castes Finance Development Corporations (SCDCs) in 1978-1979, the first Central scheme at the national level oriented towards the economic development of the Scheduled Castes,  resulting in the establishment/strengthening of such Corporations in every State of India as an instrument of providing subsidy and loans, on affordable terms, to SC persons/families for their viable projects and mini-projects of economic development.

​

These systems and instrumentalities, designed by him and guided by him during intensive tours in all parts of the country, have made it possible to bring irrigation to the small land-holdings of thousands of SC and ST small/marginal  farmers-cum-agricultural wage-laborers, thereby helping them to transform themselves into self-reliant owner-peasants; education to many thousands of boys and girls; and relief and release for many from bonded labor and stigmatized occupations like “scavenging” of human refuse in different parts of India, –– but the major part of the task remains to be accomplished, for which he continued to relentlessly strive in collaboration with social organizations and workers.

 

He was also instrumental in 1980 in the formulation and implementation of the Government of India strategy and comprehensive measures against Atrocities on SCs and STs, to check the phenomenon of physical crimes ranging from mass-murders, mass-rapes, gang-rapes, mass social and economic boycott, and mass arson to grievous and other physical hurt, committed on them as reprisal for their moves to claim their human and civil rights and assert their self-respect. Later, Shri Krishnan as Special Commissioner for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (2nd October 1987 to 1st January 1990) and as Secretary, Ministry of Welfare (2nd January 1990 to 31st December, 1990), conceptualized and operationalised an integrated special legislation against Atrocities in the form of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 (POA Act) – this was one of the numerous enactments beneficial to SC, ST and BC personally piloted by him.

 

In 1990, when he was Secretary, Ministry of Welfare (subsequently trifurcated into the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, Ministry of Tribal Affairs and Ministry of Minority Affairs), he secured Scheduled Caste status for Dalits of the Buddhist minority and piloted legislation amending the Presidential orders to this end. During that period, he also piloted Constitutional Amendment to accord Constitutional status to the National Commission for SCs and STs and to widen its scope and functions.

 

His was crucial role in providing long-delayed justice for the BCs by processing the proposal for appointment of Mandal Commission by an order of 1.1.1979 issued under his signature, and facilitating the functioning of the Mandal Commission from 1979 to 1980 as Joint Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs (SCs and BCs Development and Welfare).  Ten years later, he resumed the thread in 1990, as Secretary, Ministry of Welfare and ensured proper processing of the recommendations of the Mandal Commission, rebutted all objections, raised at that time and in the previous ten years, placed the Mandal Commission’s recommendations in the correct historical and Constitutional perspective before the Cabinet thereby securing their recognition and provision of reservation for them. Before his retirement from the IAS on 31. 12. 1990, he also prepared counter-affidavits personally, provided historical and Constitutional facts and background to the Attorney-General and his team and took other steps to ensure that the Supreme Court had the correct picture in the writ petitions and thereby facilitated the judicial upholding of recognition of and reservation for BCs by a 9-Member Bench of the Supreme Court in its landmark Mandal case judgment of 16th November, 1992. Again in February to June 1993 as Member of Expert Committee on BCs, he facilitated implementation of the Supreme Court’s directions and conditions and the preparation of the first-phase Central (Common) Lists of BCs and actual commencement of reservation for them in 1993. Again his presence as Member-Secretary of the National Commission for BCs from 15th August 1993 to February 2000 and his country-wide encyclopedic knowledge has helped to ensure that genuine socially backward communities left out in the first-phase Central Lists were brought into the Central Lists of BCs and efforts to bring in communities, which are not socially backward, were effectively barred. Aware of the tendency to lose sight of BCs of Muslims and Christians, he took particular care to see that in every State Socially and Educationally Backward communities of Muslims and Christians were brought into the Central list.

He has also worked out, in his capacity as Chairman of the Working Group on the Development of Backward Classes in the IX Plan, the first such Working Group for Backward Classes, and Chairman of a similar working Group in the X Plan, a blue-print for the practical and constructive development of Backward Classes.

After the Supreme Court judgment in 1992, he continuously campaigned for extension of reservation for Backward Classes to education.  When, after a delay of another 14 years, the Ministry of HRD, moved for this in 2006, he campaigned through lectures and articles to defend this decision, logically and effectively repelling the ill-informed and subjective criticisms of elite society and elite media.  The Ministry of HRD wisely sought his help in guiding defense against Writ Petitions in the Supreme Court challenging the Act providing reservation for SC, ST and BC in Government and Aided Institutions of Higher Education. He accepted the position of Advisor in charge of this task on his condition that he would not receive any remuneration.  He prepared all the Affidavits for the Government, powerfully countering the allegations and distorted averments in the Writ Petitions; coordinated with the Law Officers and Senior Counsels of Government of India and other lawyers of States, Parties and BC organizations; provided all significant social and historical facts to them and strategized the case of the Backward Classes.  This led to the unanimous upholding of the Act and the corresponding part of the 93rd Constitution amendment by a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court by its landmark judgment of 10th April 2008.

He continued to press the Government of India to take the next step of enacting legislation for reservation for SCs, STs and BCs in private professional and other higher educational institutions, thus fulfilling the true purpose of the Constitution (Ninety-third Amendment) of 2005, though his role as Advisor ceased. 

In 2007, Government of Andhra Pradesh approached him for help in identifying Socially and Educationally Backward Classes among Muslims of Andhra Pradesh (now Telengana and Andhra Pradesh) and make recommendations for reservation for them. He was appointed as Advisor to the Government of Andhra Pradesh (here, again, on his condition that no remuneration will be paid to him) with the status of a Cabinet Minister. On the basis of his report comprehensively surveying the social structure of and stratification in Muslim society in India and in different parts of India and specifically in Andhra Pradesh, the Government of AP, after fulfilling statutory procedures, introduced 4% reservation for the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes of Muslims identified by him, who constitute, as in the rest of the country, about 75 to 80 percent of the Muslim population.  By this the lacuna in according recognition to BCs of Muslims in Andhra Pradesh was rectified. As a result, in the last eight years, tens of thousands of BC Muslim boys and girls have got admission in professional and other higher educational institutions. The recruitment of a few BC Muslim women to State Class-I services is a historical first. He helped the State Government in effectively defending the State Act in the High Court and has been helping the State Government in defending it in the Supreme Court.