Social activist and Arya Samaj
leader Swami Agnivesh passed away Friday at the Institute of
Liver and Biliary Sciences in New Delhi. He was 80.
Agnivesh had been suffering
from liver cirrhosis and was put on ventilatory support on Tuesday due to
multiple organ failure.
“His condition deteriorated today
and he went into cardiac arrest at 6:00 PM. Resuscitation was attempted but the
stalwart passed away at 6:30 PM,” said a statement by the
Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences.
Born into a Brahmin family in
Andhra Pradesh, Swami Agnivesh came to be known for his
campaign against bonded labour through his foundation Bandhua Mukti Morcha
(Bonded Labor Liberation Front). His public work spurred him to enter active
politics.
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He was elected to the Haryana Assembly in 1977 and was made education minister after two years. He, however, resigned from the post in protest against the Haryana government’s inaction against police who had opened fire at workers protesting bonded labour.
Swami Agnivesh also led several
initiatives to foster peace and interfaith harmony in Kashmir at the height of
militancy, his website notes. In 2010, he was tasked by the Congress government
to open a dialogue with the Maoist leadership. A year later he was part of the
anti-corruption movement led by Anna Hazare. He was forced to split from the
group after a video surfaced allegedly showing him speaking to a minister from
the Congress government. It was around this time that Swami Agnivesh appeared
on reality TV show Bigg Boss as a guest.
Swami Agnivesh, who was president
of World Council of Arya Samaj till 2014, had also angered Hindu groups for his
comments on Amarnath shrine in Jammu & Kashmir. Agnivesh, they alleged,
insulted Lord Shiva by saying that the ice stalagmite doesn’t hold any
religious significance.
In 2018, he was attacked by protesters allegedly belonging to the BJP’s youth wing in Jharkhand. Videos of the attack showed protesters asking Agnivesh to “go back” while calling him a “Pakistani agent”.
A month later, Agnivesh was
assaulted on Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg in New Delhi on his way to pay
tribute to former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
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