field as candidates, some respectable persons who had support across the party lines and who would offer an alternative to corrupt politicians. A long list of about 400 such persons was drafted. With the help of his Socialist friend Surendra Mohan, who was once a close colleague of Jayprakash Narayan, Joshi held several meetings with various opinion-makers in Delhi. Many leading figures in the country like Swami Agnivesh, Gurupad Swami, Shankar Guha Niyogi, Kuldip Nayar, Arun Shourie, Mrunal Pande, Madhu Kishwar showed initial interest in forming such a front. But eventually most of them backed out. The sympathy of the masses was clearly for Rajiv Gandhi. Ultimately, Joshi himself decided to wear that mantle and began to see how Rajiv’s margin of victory could be substantially reduced. For that he decided to form an alliance of political parties in Maharashtra. Joshi convened a special meeting of the SS Executive Committee in Pune on 22 November 1984. He said at the outset that SS should officially take anti-Congress (I) stand with the objective of defeating Rajiv Gandhi. Joshi always believed that the Socialist policies adopted by Nehru and later by his daughter were primarily responsible for stunting the growth of the country. He regarded Congress (I) as the biggest enemy of the farmers; a party that had to be defeated by hook or crook. It irked him that despite such policies which were detrimental to the nation, Nehru and his family continued to remain idols of the intelligentsia. He had told his followers in rather bitter and blunt words that even the statues of Nehru erected in different places should be demolished. Of course none of his followers followed this advice. Majority of his colleagues felt that SS should retain its non-political nature. However, Joshi was firm in his conviction and because of his insistence the Executive Committee passed the following resolution : ‘Shetkari Sanghatana hereby commands all its followers that no farmer should vote for Congress (I) in the forthcoming 248
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Sharad Joshi : Leading Farmers to the Centre Stage
