elected President of Bharati Kisan Union (BKU), the largest organization of farmers in Punjab. Apart from being a leading farmer from Batala, he was also a member of Rajya Sabha from 1990 to 1996. The administration of Chandigarh, that city being a Union Territory, was quite cooperative. Earlier it had plans for dispersing farmers by using the police. But when it realized that the agitation was going on quite peacefully it refrained from using force. Officials sat down with the farmers’ leaders and fixed the roads and areas that farmers would occupy. It maintained the cleanliness of the area and also ensured that water and electricity were provided. Farmers also responded by behaving peacefully and responsibly. Administration set a good example of how an agitation like this should be handled. Farmers’ leaders appreciated this many a times in their speeches. The agitation of the farmers was against the government of Punjab and not against the city administration. All Punjabi, Hindi and English newspapers published from Chandigarh gave good coverage to this agitation making it frontpage news every day. All of them even wrote editorials on it. Different facets of those days were revealed by some journalists. For instance, a news item which appeared in “The Tribune”, a leading paper of Punjab, on 13 March reported how several farmers slept on the lawns of prestigious Golf Club. This was the most elite club and normally a farmer would have found it difficult to even step on those lawns! To go for boating in Sukhana Lake or walk around the expensive malls of Sector 17 or simply marvel at the palatial houses of the rich were some of the things farmers were found to be enjoying. The Tribune said, ‘One could guess what a farmer coming to Chandigarh from the rural area might be feeling.’ The editorial of the same newspaper of 15 March under the title The March on Chandigarh admired this agitation by calling 212
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Sharad Joshi : Leading Farmers to the Centre Stage
