Kirori Singh Bainsla

After beginning work as a teacher, Kirori Singh Bainsla enlisted in the army as a sepoy, following in the footsteps of his father who served in the British Indian Army. It has been speculated that his military background might have enabled him to organise the Gurjar protest with such precision and on the large scale which characterised it.[1]

He fought in the Sino-Indian war of 1962 and received an emergency commission as a second lieutenant on 2 August 1964.[10] As an infantry officer in the Guards regiment, he fought in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 and became a prisoner of war. Promoted to lieutenant on 2 August 1966,[11] Bainsla received a regular commission as a second lieutenant on 1 April 1970 (seniority from 20 January 1966), with promotion to lieutenant from the same date (seniority from 20 January 1968).[12] Dubbed the "Rock of Gibraltar" by his seniors in the army, Bainsla was promoted to captain on 20 January 1972 and to major on 20 January 1979.[13][14] On 3 April 1988, by now in the Indian Army Pioneer Corps, Bainsla was promoted to lieutenant colonel (by selection),[15] denoting him as an officer suitable for higher command. He however voluntarily took early retirement from the Army on 10 June 1991, transferring to the reserves.[16]

Married at the age of 14, Bainsla's wife died in 1996.[3] He had a daughter and three sons. He lived in Hindaun, a tehsil in Karauli district of Rajasthan.[1] He belonged to village Mundia मुंडिया Rajasthan Pin : 304502 ( lat / long 26.824077, 76.912098 ) around 30 km from Hindaun city. His wife Mrs Resham Bainsla belonged to village Deolen, around 12 km from Mundia. He wore the traditional dress of a red turban and white clothing.[5]

He once said that "Only a bullet or a letter (granting the demands) can remove me from here."[1] He said that one of the reasons he was engaged in this cause was because his children are settled and so he could think of his "greater family".[3]

He mooted the concept of "Social Emergency" for a period of 15 years - wherein the society should focus on two things - Good Health & Good Education, reduce all wasteful and extravagant expenditures on marriages / bhagwat kathas, etc. and reinvest the monies saved for education and health. In all his social gatherings in the rural areas of Rajasthan he asked one question primarily - "how many people take a book / magazine / newspaper back home in the evening for their families to read". Over the years his focus on education had massive results.

He died on 31 March 2022 at the age of 81 due to prolonged illness. He was taken to a private hospital where doctors declared him brought dead, family sources said.[17]

In Rajasthan, Gurjars are officially part of obc communities that come under Other backward castes (OBC) category. However, Gurjars most stride to compete with many other well educated communities in the OBC category. Bainsla wanted to rectify this apparent disadvantage by registering Gurjars (middle caste) to make a ST (Scheduled Tribe) - a technically lower status, but one that entitles a community to more government assistance. During the initial days he was marked as "mad man" by his own community for raising such a demand.

In 2007, he withdrew the demand for ST status for Gurjars after talks with the Rajasthan Government. However, some sections of the community felt betrayed and accused him of being an agent of the government. In 2008, he renewed the call for ST status, and a new wave of Gurjar protests have since captured the attention of the whole country and put Rajasthan on standstill.[18] Some media outlets have accused other Gurjar leaders of hypocrisy for their alleged lavish lifestyles, but Bainsla largely avoided these accusations.[19]

Bainsla was the man behind and the creator of "DevNarayan Yojana" - a government fund / program for the upliftment of Banjara/Baldia/Labana, Gadia-Lohar/Gadalia, Gujjar/Gurjar, Raika/Rebari and Gadaria (Gaadri). The Devnarayan Yojana focusses on imparting education, builds and operates residential schools and colleges, imparts felicitation to meritorious girl students, gives fully funded education to girl students from the classes of 6th onwards- all expenses of education / lodging and boarding are taken up by the Devnarayan Board for these students. He was instrumental in ensuring the opening of Primary Health Centres across the state to ensure medical facilities to the economically backward people in the rural hinterlands of Rajasthan.

The DevNarayan Yojana has an approved financial budget outlay of Rs 1000 Crores by the government, which is now being extended to Rs 1500 Crores to take into account additional education and health facilities for the MBC in Rajasthan.

Some achievements of Bainsla's Devnarayan Initiative that are directly impacting the people of the community & region are:

1. Pre Metric Scholarships: To date 7,87,194 students have availed themselves of the benefits of Pre metric scholarships
2. Post Metric Scholarships: To date 3,56,305 students have availed themselves of the benefits of Post metric scholarships
3. Gurukul Yojana: 14,359 students are studying in the gurukul yojana completely free where the education, lodging, and boarding is provided free to needy children.
4. Scooty Yojana: Aimed at increasing the education in the girl child segment, Bainsla started the Scooty Yojana in which Girls from the community who topped the merit in the 12th exams would get a Scooty (mechanised two wheeler) as an incentive to perform well on the exams. During the first year of the Scooty initiative (2011) only 280 scooties were given out against an allocation of 500 and the cut off merit percentage was 53% due to lack of girls being educated from the community. In the year 2017-18, 1000 scooties were given against 11,000 applications and the merit cut off was at 80% plus. An additional 7589 girl students were given consolation financial awards who missed the scooties by a small percentage but who had put in great efforts.
5. 47 Student hostels given in rural and semi-urban locations to aid needy children to get quality education.
6. 2 Colleges have been built and are operational (1) Girls College at Bayana (2) Boys College at Nandauti.
7. 26 + 10 , 36 residential schools approved and under different stages of construction . These schools are operational under the RICE pattern where the students are admitted in class 6th and full education is provided until class 12th. Some operational schools are:
   1. Devnarayan Girls Residential School, Suvana ( bhilwara )
   2. Devnarayan Boys Residential School, Baleta ( alwar )
   3. Devnarayan Boys Residential School, Chandapura ( jalore )
   4. Devnarayan Girls Residential School, Hindoli ( bundi )
   5. Devnarayan Girls Residential School, Devlen ( karauli )
   6. Devnarayan Girls Residential School, Yusufpura ( tonk )
   7. Devnarayan Girls Residential School, Macchipura ( sawai madhopur )
   8. Devnarayan Girls Residential School, Amarpur ( dausa )
8. Dairy Plant at Khetri under construction, which will give additional means of livelihood to the community that is predominantly dependent on cattle and milk production.
9. Health: 192 Sub-Primary health centres made operational in these backward rural areas. 6 Mobile hospital units operational to bridge the gap between the sub primary and primary health centre . 7 Primary health centres operational.

The Current OBC Reservation follows the creamy layer process wherein the OBC certificate is prerequisite for availing reservation benefits. Only the incumbents who do not fall into the Creamy Layer ( annual income / assets / value above Rs 6 Lacs per annum ) will be issued the OBC certificate basis with which they can apply for the benefits of OBC reservation.

The "creamy layer" categorization is currently meant only for the OBCs and is not applicable to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The reasons cited for this parity is that the provisions for reservations for SC/ST are not for their economical benefits but for their social upliftment. Thus, SC/ST reservations are applicable irrespective of the financial status of the beneficiaries, which in other words means that even if the SC/ST is financially sound he /she would still get the benefits of reservation.

In Rajasthan 91 entries (by way of castes, their synonyms, sub-castes etc.) have been notified by the State Government in the State list of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in Rajasthan. In Rajasthan, the total reservation of 49% included 21% for OBC, 16% for SC (Scheduled Castes), and 12% for ST (Scheduled Tribes). The Demand is for logical bifurcation of the 21% based on the population percentage for each OBC caste as the majority of the existing 21% is being availed by the few strong and robust castes in Rajasthan , and the economically backward castes do not get the relevant benefits of OBC reservation. The Justice Rohini Commission has been empowered to look into the bifurcation of the OBC by the centre under article 340 of the constitution.

In February 2019 the MBC community again went on the warpath with the government blocking the Delhi-Mumbai Rail route at Malarna Dungar, Sawai Madhopur in demanding a five percent quota after Congress came to power in Rajasthan. During the election campaign of the Congress party the PCC Chief and Deputy CM Sachin Pilot who is also a Gurjar from Uttar Pradesh made a commitment in the election manifesto to give a 5% reservation to MBC along with all backlog jobs for the MBC community. The people held the congress to its manifesto, interestingly Col. Bainsla's son Vijay Bainsla, who had been working with the people entered the socio-political arena from here. It was during this agitation that the Government of Rajasthan passed the bill in the Rajasthan Vidhansabha giving a 5% reservation exclusively to Banjara/Baldia/Labana, Gadia-Lohar/Gadalia, Gujjar/Gurjar, Raika/Rebari, and Gadaria (Gaadri) communities in the state. This 5% reservation is applicable to the education and appointments of the state - RPSC, Sate Appointments, RJS, and educational institutions.

He and his son joined BJP in the presence of Party President Amit Shah on 10 April 2019[21] and his son Vijay Bainsla was accompanied by BJP Rajasthan-in-charge Prakash Javadekar.[22]

Colonel Bainsla Foundation is a registered trust which was founded by Colonel Bainsla with a vision to ensure that each and every person is provided with "good health" and "good education". A foundation focused on creating awareness about the importance of education especially for girls, of curbing social ills such as child marriages, extravagant weddings, dowries, etc. and on educating and empowering the youth for towards a bright and vibrant future.

• Colonel Bainsla Foundation