various organizations to invite their participation. Those were the days when Rajiv Gandhi was riding a mighty wave of sympathy following the assassination of his mother. In that atmosphere to take a stand against Rajiv was clearly swimming against the current. But Joshi took the risk. The agitation was launched in Vidarbha where cotton was the main crop. Even in Vidarbha, Wardha was the chosen site which was famous for Sevagram, where Gandhiji spent several years of his later life. Even the date chosen to start the agitation was 2 October, Gandhiji birth anniversary. All that did not happen by coincidence but just showed the meticulous planning that had preceded the agitation. On the morning of that day a procession was taken which consisted of 1200 bullock carts all driven by women. It ended at the ground where a mass meeting was organized. Forty thousand farmers were present. Joshi spoke at the meeting and in the end a huge heap of synthetic clothes was put to fire. That day similar fires were lit at 250 places throughout the State. Everyone was talking about the agitation. A novel kind of protest was announced next month. The idea was that on the 10 November throughout the State farmers would stand on both sides of the road, would stop each vehicle and give the driver a flower and a leaf along with a leaflet outlining demands of the SS. That way there would be no rasta roko, traffic would keep moving albeit slowly, and attention of people would be drawn to the demands of the farmers. This was called “Phul-Paan andolan” and had good response. A wellknown cartoonist Mangesh Tendulkar had drawn four special cartoons for this programme of which ten lakh copies were printed and were given to each driver and passenger along with the leaflets listing farmers’ demands. As a part of the agitation against synthetic clothes another interesting programme was organized on 7 October in Pune. 160
Q
Sharad Joshi : Leading Farmers to the Centre Stage
