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 The same was happening on that afternoon of Saturday, 24 May. Out of several heaps of onion lying in the Market Yard less than 10 percent were accepted by NAFED. Repeated discussions with officials yielded nothing. Entire day Joshi, along with Shankarrao Wagh and Babulal Pardeshi, was moving about the Market Yard going from one farmer to the other. SS had got forms printed to record the details of rejection for future reference. Farmers were just not used to filling any such forms and many of them were in fact illiterate. But SS workers were helping them. All the 200 forms which were printed got filled up. Then volunteers started noting down the information on plain paper. 450 of such plain paper forms got filled up, but the long queue of the farmers did not end. Chakan market being the main market for onion, farmers from far-off places also regularly brought their produce to this market. There were, for example, some farmers from Parner taluka in Ahmadnagar district who had come with their onion lots 25 days ago and still their onion was not getting sold. They were in tears for they could not take back the onion to their farms. There was a real danger that their onion would just rot. But NAFED officials had turned a deaf ear to all their pleas. There was one particular lot which looked quite good. It could have easily fetched the rate of Rs. 60. But NAFED officials had rejected it. Joshi personally went there to argue with the officials but they simply did not want to listen. That was the last straw on the camel’s back. Joshi asked all farmers not to participate in the auction anymore and he started moving towards Nashik-Pune highway. All farmers followed him shouting slogans. After reaching the highway, farmers gathered several rocks and placed them on the road to block the traffic and additionally they themselves squatted on the road. Vehicular traffic came to a standstill. Farmers numbered over five thousand. Interestingly, one of the cars that was 114

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Sharad Joshi : Leading Farmers to the Centre Stage