Kirori Singh Bainsla, a retired Indian Army colonel who spearheaded the agitation for reservation for Gujjars in Rajasthan, died on Thursday morning at the age of 81.
His son told The Indian Express “He asked us for some water at around 5.30 am and went to sleep. He didn’t wake up following that. We tried cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and even took him to a hospital where he was [declared] brought dead.”
Bainsla had served in the Indian Army for around 30 years, seeing action in the wars of 1962, 1965 and 1971.
He hit the headlines in 2008 as he launched an agitation for reservation for the Gujjars in Rajasthan. The agitation, which involved road and rail blockades, disrupted travel across the state and even in Delhi. Around 70 people were killed in the agitation, which also saw counter-mobilisation by the Meena community.
The 2008 agitation was one of the reasons why the BJP government of Vasundhara Raje Scindia lost the assembly polls that year.
Bainsla continued to champion reservation for the Gujjars and also oscillated between the BJP and Congress, though he had little success in politics. He contested the 2009 Lok Sabha polls on a BJP ticket, but lost by a narrow margin to a Congress candidate. He joined the BJP again in 2019. Political observers credited Bainsla with having influence in eastern Rajasthan and Bhilwara, Ajmer and Rajsamand.
BJP Rajya Sabha MP Prakash Javadekar condoled the death of Bainsla, tweeting “He fought for the country and for Society”.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, a native of Rajasthan, tweeted Bainsla was a “strong leader of the social movement. He fought lifelong for social rights”.
Bainsla had been infected with Covid twice and had receded from public view over the past year. In January this year, Congress leaders visited his home in Jaipur, given the importance of the Gujjar community in multiple election-bound states.