AMN / we besk
Social activist and a religious leader of Arya samaj, Swami Agnivesh died after a cardiac arrest Friday evening at the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences in Delhi. He was 80 years old. Admitted to the hospital on Tuesday, Swami Agnivesh was being treated for liver cirrhosis and had been on ventilator support following multi-organ failure.
According to a statement by the hospital, his condition began deteriorating this evening and he suffered a heart attack at 6 PM. Doctors tried to resuscitate him but failed, and he was declared dead at 6.30 PM.
Agnivesh was elected to Haryana Legislative Assembly in 1977 and served as a Cabinet Minister for Education in the state in 1979.
He founded Bonded Labour Liberation Front in 1981 and worked against bonded labour. He also led numerous movements against alcoholism. Swami Agnivesh also served as president of the Sarvadeshik Arya Pratinidhi Sabha, World Council of Arya Samaj.
A social activist and a religious leader who fought against bonded labour, news of Swami Agnivesh’s death was greeted with shock and sorrow, with Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, senior lawyer and activist Prashant Bhushan, and Nobel Peace Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi among those who tweeted.