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 but cancelled it later saying that he did not approve of SS way of rasta roko. To cajole him into attending Joshi personally went to his home in Mumbai but he remained firm. Perhaps he had received instructions from Delhi to avoid this gathering. But others like Sharad Pawar, Pramod Mahajan and former Prime Minister Choudhari Charan Singh were present. They spoke expressing their solidarity with the sugarcane growers. The gathering also involved burning of synthetic clothes. Later in the afternoon, while the speeches were going on, it started to rain heavily. It was feared that the meeting would have to be abandoned. But then Joshi got up, went to the rostrum and announced that the meeting would go on as scheduled and nobody should leave. To the great surprise of everyone on stage, out of over two lakh farmers seated not one got up to leave. Such was the unbelievable hold Joshi had on farmers. After the meeting, Charan Singh commented in Hindi, ‘I had seen many a meeting in my life but had never witnessed this fantastically charged atmosphere.’ The admiration expressed by Charan Singh, who was widely regarded as a voice of the farmers, warmed Joshi’s heart.

SS planned a massive rally on 31 October 1984 at Tehere in Nashik district. Joshi wanted to announce a major nationwide agitation. Though the agitation was to start in Maharashtra, he was sure it would soon spread throughout the nation. His foray in Punjab in recent months had given him that confidence. The plan was to organize a simultaneous satyagraha of some forty lakh farmers in fourteen States. He had anticipated that in the wake of forthcoming general elections the government would be amenable to approve farmers’ demands. SS had worked very hard for that meeting. Two yatras started from Bardoli in Gujarat, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s village, on 2 October 1984. Both travelled together from Bardoli 246

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Sharad Joshi : Leading Farmers to the Centre Stage