Memorial event held in Delhi for Gujjar leader Kirori Singh Bainsla

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New Delhi, Sep 17 (PTI) A memorial event remembering the life and works of late Gujjar leader Kirori Singh Bainsla was held here, with people from different walks of life paying tribute to him.

Academicians, retired and serving bureaucrats, and Gujjar community leaders spoke on various aspects of Bainsla’s life, including the mega agitation he led between 2007-08 in Rajasthan seeking a government quota for his community.

The protests resulted in the Rajasthan government granting the Gujjar community a 5 per cent quota in public jobs and educational seats in 2019.

Senior Supreme Court Advocate Manish Singhvi, speaking during the first ‘Colonel Bainsla Memorial Lecture’, called him a “visionary” and a “social reformer” who also issued a clarion call against

intoxication for his community and society in general.

Ganga Sahay Meena, an Associate Professor at JNU, recalled how Bainsla advocated for education for girls and women, in addition to English-based teaching for the children of his community and other backward groups so they could strive to make a place for themselves.

“Late Colonel Bainsla was also against superstitions practised in the society and wasteful expenditure in weddings and other events,” Meena said.

Veteran Journalist Ashok Wankhede recalled his long-time association with the Gujjar leader, saying he was a man of “firm conviction and high thought.” Sunita Bainsla, a retired IRS officer and daughter of Bainsla, also spoke during the event and underlined that her father “stood for honesty, hard work, and good intent.” Bainsla died in March 2022 at the age of 82.

He served in the Indian Army for about three decades, participating in the 1962 Chinese conflict as well as the India-Pakistan wars in 1965 and 1971.

The protests he led in Rajasthan resulted in the deaths of more than 70 people due to police firing and other violent incidents, which included rail and road blockades in multiple districts of eastern part of the state. PTI NES RHL