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 happened in Nipani following his meeting with Sharad Joshi. This is how it went. Two Joshis hit it off well in the first meeting itself and formed a team. Subhash Joshi had invited all his young followers to meet Sharad Joshi. They were keen to meet the guest from Pune about whom they had heard a lot. All were impressed when Sharad Joshi spoke to them and agreed to work with him. An interesting event happened the same day by sheer coincidence. A team of four correspondents from BBC landed in Nipani from Delhi where they had been to interview Rajiv Gandhi, who had just entered politics. BBC had given good coverage to sugarcane farmers’ agitation in Nasik. For them, such a struggle by farmers was a very significant development and BBC team also wanted to interview Sharad Joshi. After finishing the interview with Rajiv Gandhi, they planned to go to Pune but when they contacted Joshi’s home they discovered that he had gone to Nipani. Therefore, instead of going to Pune they came all the way to Subhash Joshi’s house in Nipani. When people saw a BBC Television van stop in front of Subhash Joshi’s house and four Britishers enter his home, the news spread like wildfire. Everyone in Nipani was quite awed. Presence of four foreigners in a small town like Nipani in itself was a big news in those days. When people learnt that they had come to interview Sharad Joshi, their respect for him increased manifold. Subhash Joshi and his young colleagues also suddenly realized that they were in presence of a celebrity. The BBC team interviewed Sharad Joshi and a short documentary which included that interview was later shown on BBC TV. The very next day, on 1 February 1981, in Nehru Chowk of Nipani, Sharad Joshi addressed his first public meeting in Nipani. The crowd included eight to ten thousand women 140

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Sharad Joshi : Leading Farmers to the Centre Stage