Ex-Col Kirori Singh Bainsla, face of 2008 Gurjar stir and a war veteran, cremated with military honours

Jaipur, April 1

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Mortal remains of retired Colonel Kirori Singh Bainsla, the face of the 2008 Gurjar quota agitation in Rajasthan and a war veteran, were consigned to flames with full military honours on Friday in Mundia village in Karauli district.

Bainsla died of prolonged illness at his village home on Thursday, his family members said. He was 84.

The Gurjar leader’s body was kept at a house in Jaipur for paying tributes and taken to Mundia village in a decorated Indian Army truck on Friday.

A large number of people and his supporters followed the truck on bikes and cars raising slogans and hailing Bainsla.

Thousands of people, including women, reached the village and also the cremation ground to pay their tributes to him. His eldest son lit the funeral pyre.

Karauli District Collector Rajendra Singh Shekhawat said several state ministers, including Vishvendra Singh and Shakuntala Rawat, Deputy Leader of Opposition Rajendra Rathore, MLA Jogendra Awana, Deputy Leader of Opposition in Delhi assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri and BKU leader Rakesh Tikait too were present during the cremation.

Karauli Superintendent of Police Shailendra Singh said about 35,000 to 40,000 people had come to pay their last tributes to Col Bainsla.

Bainsla had contested the Lok Sabha polls in 2009 on a BJP ticket but lost to the Congress candidate by a thin margin.

In 2007 and 2008, the Gurjar leader led the quota agitation.

During the agitation, over 70 people were killed in police firing and other violent incidents during the stir, which saw major rail and road blockades in the eastern Rajasthan districts of Bharatpur, Karauli, Dausa and Sawai Madhopur.

Bainsla served in the Indian Army for three decades and was a war veteran, having participated in the 1962 war against China and the Indo-Pak wars in 1965 and 1971.

After his retirement, he took up the cause of reservation in state jobs and education for Gurjars.

Following a prolonged agitation, the state government gave five per cent reservation to Gurjars and four other nomadic communities—Banjara, Gadia-Lohar, Raika and Gadariya—in state jobs and education by creating an MBC category for them.