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 ambition and jealousy; for it was obvious that Joshi was to be the main star of the rally and the Press was going to give Joshi maximum coverage. Whatever the provocation, Tikait’s followers began to manhandle Joshi’s colleagues on stage. They even started uprooting the poles on which the stage was built. The audience was just stunned. Nobody really knew what was happening. Realizing that Joshi’s life was in danger, his close colleagues made him jump from the backside of the stage and some like Badrinath Deokar standing below carefully caught him. They took him a little away from the stage. He seemed safe but complained of chest pain. His friends immediately took him to a hospital where he was under medical observation for the next 48 hours. With the stage, even his grand expectations had crashed. This was perhaps the most tragic moment in Joshi’s journey to the national stage. Had that rally been successful, the stage was set for him to enter the national arena as a new Hero. But destiny had other ideas. During the past five years, especially after the Chandigarh gherao of 1984, many publications had highlighted Joshi’s role in the farmers’ struggle. As early as August 1981, an elitist magazine like debonair had carried a long five-page interview with him. Business World, a fortnightly published by prestigious Anand Bazar group of Kolkata had done a cover story on Joshi (July 16 to 29, 1984) under the heading; Why Bharat has declared a war on India. In the same year, in the Annual issue of Society monthly, Joshi was included in the list of “Fifty most influential” people in India. Editor Shobhaa De had called him “Gandhi in Denim”. Illustrated Weekly of India, which had the highest circulation in the country, had published a list of fifty prominent Indians under the heading “Watch Out! People capable of making it to the big, big league” in their issue of 1 to 7 January 1989. Joshi’s name was in that list. The Boat Club rally would have been a game-changer. In fact in some quarters his name was amongst those mentioned as 274

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Sharad Joshi : Leading Farmers to the Centre Stage