Bharatpur seer who set himself on fire to protest against mining dies in Delhi

On July 20, Vijay Das had set himself on fire in Bharatpur’s Pasopa village, with the police nearby rushing to douse the fire.

Vijay Das's mortal remains are being taken to Barsana for the last rites.

Bharatpur seer Vijay Das, who set himself on fire to demand suspension of mining activities in certain revered hills of the district in Rajasthan, died in the wee hours of Saturday while undergoing treatment in New Delhi.

On July 20, Das had set himself on fire in Bharatpur’s Pasopa village, with the police nearby rushing to douse the fire. Das and the others had been protesting mining in the hills of Aadibari and Kankachal in Bharatpur, considered sacred by some, for nearly 15 months. Another seer, Narayan Das, had climbed atop a mobile phone tower demanding a ban on the mining activities.

Das’s mortal remains are being taken to Barsana in Mathura for the last rites. The Maan Mandir Seva Sansthan, which organises the Braj 84 kos parikrama, is based in Barsana and Das is said to have been associated with it. However, talking to journalists in Delhi, BJP Lok Sabha MP from Bharatpur Ranjeeta Koli alleged that the remains are being taken to Barsana “forcibly.”

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“We had said (the remains) should be taken to Pasopa, even if for five minutes, but the administration is under pressure from the Congress government,” Koli said and demanded a CBI inquiry.

Earlier, Bharatpur District Collector Alok Ranjan had said that all the mines are legal. “I would like to clarify that the mines — 11 in Kankachal and 34 in Aadibadri — were allotted between 2000 and 2018 and are all legal.” However, after the seer self-immolated, the state government had announced that the land in question will be declared as forest land, thus effectively stopping all mining activities on the hills.

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