met. In ten minutes of chatting, their wavelengths seemed to have clicked. Joshi said, ‘These boys have organized my tour in your taluka and I very much hope that you too would join me.’ More’s response was warm and spontaneous. He said, ‘You have come to our taluka. Why you need to invite me to join you on this tour? Of course I will be there. From tomorrow onwards I am your driver. Just order me where I should take you.’ Another leading farmer of the region, Prahlad Karad Patil, who was Vice Chairman of the factory, joined them soon. The trio remained at the heart of the sugarcane growers’ struggle and played a significant leadership role in the farmers’ struggle in the years to come. In Onion struggle at Chakan, Joshi had close colleagues like Babulal Pardeshi and Shankarrao Wagh. The two colleagues he had in Nifad were equally committed but of rather different kind. More and Karad Patil were both established farmers with large holdings and were already recognized as leaders. No doubt they accepted Joshi as their leader but Joshi also learnt a few things from them. For instance, Joshi always had the impression like most other citydwellers that there was a lot of money in sugarcane farming. These two explained to him how that was not correct by telling him the bitter truth behind sugarcane. The exhorbitant prices of fertilizers and pesticides, compulsion to sell their entire crop to a designated sugar factory at a very low rate, corruption in the sugar factories, interference from the government at every stage of sugar production and consequent control of the politicians were some of the difficulties they explained. When Joshi asked how sugarcane farmers could afford to live their impressive lifestyle, Karad Patil said, ‘Don’t go by our appearance. It is all deceptive. We are all totally sunk in bank debt. Our dhoti belongs to one bank, shirt to another bank and cap to a third bank!’ Bitter Story of Sugarcane
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