NEW DELHI: India’s leading peace activist and a staunch advocate of friendly ties with Pakistan, Swami Aginivesh, died in a hospital here on Friday of complications from liver failure, reports said. He was 80.

The saffron-clad defender of India’s secular constitution was assaulted viciously by suspected activists belonging to the country’s ruling party in 2018, and his close friends said his liver never recovered from the deep injuries.

The Swami was an active member of peace committees seeking friendship with neighbouring countries including Pakistan, and was a trenchant critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s domestic and foreign policies.

A report from last year recalls how in the midst of an anti-Pakistan discourse developing nationwide in the wake of the Pulwama terror attack that claimed the lives of 40 paramilitary personnel, Swami stressed on the need for evidence backed claims against Pakistan.

He said: “We should blame Pakistan only after having strong evidences against them. Pakistan has already condemned the attack. Had they not condemned it, we could have blamed them.”

Swami Agnivesh was widely respected for his campaign against bonded labour through his foundation Bandhua Mukti Morcha (Bonded Labour Liberation Front), and in this he was at loggerheads with saffron fringes.

Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2020