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 The politicians of Vidarbha were very happy with the Monopoly Scheme because eventually it was they who controlled it. Just as politicians in Western Maharashtra had sugar factories, they also wanted an instrument for controlling farmers, and of course to make money for themselves. Monopoly Scheme fulfilled their wish. Those politicians glorified this Scheme to such an extent that to criticize its working became almost sacrilegious or treason. Sharad Joshi was fundamentally opposed to this Monopoly Scheme because basically he was opposed to any such scheme devised on Socialistic model. But in this case he took a pragmatic view. Even before his tour of Vidarbha in 1980-81 he had said, ‘May the arrangement for purchase be of any type; it may be government-owned, cooperative, private, owned by God, or even by Saitan; what is most important is that the farmer gets the remunerative price based on his cost of production.’ It reminded one of the quote attributed to Deng Xiao Ping when he launched China on the free marked path — ‘No matter if it is a white cat or a black cat, as long as it can catch mice, it is a good cat.’ Joshi often spoke against this Scheme saying that whatever might be the ideals behind starting it, in practice it had totally failed. He said, in states like Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh or Gujarat where no such scheme was operational and trade was in the hands of the traders, farmer always got higher price for his cotton. Moreover, despite giving higher rate to the farmers, the traders were making handsome profits for themselves, whereas this Scheme, despite paying less to the farmers, always made huge loss. Certain aspects of cotton trade were always governed by the Central Government. For instance, export of cotton was controlled by the Centre. It took decisions without any regard to the interests of the farmers and always favoured the textile mills. Those running 156

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Sharad Joshi : Leading Farmers to the Centre Stage