New Delhi: Arya Samaj leader and a renowned social activist Swami Agnivesh breathed his last on Friday evening. The 80-year-old ‘secular swami’ was on the ventilator and succumbed to multiple-organ failure at New Delhi’s Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences.
“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,” read a statement by the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences.
Born to a Brahmin couple in Andhra Pradesh, Swami Agnivesh renounced his name and caste, religion, family, and all his belongings and property to lead the life of a sannyasin (hermit).
Agnivesh was widely 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. 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.
He was always at the forefront in fights against the anti-Muslim regime of the Bharatiya Janata Party. In 2017, when he was on his way to participate in a tribal community event in Jharkhand, a mob of right-wing goons beat him up. After the incident, he released a statement in which he mentioned, “My ideal of social justice runs counter to the casteism of Sangh Parivar.”