meeting. For the first time Joshi felt he had met someone in politics he could personally get along with. Singh, who was four years older than Joshi, also needed someone like Joshi who had a mass base and could provide local support to Singh. At a public meeting in Muzzfarnagar in Uttar Pradesh where Singh announced his separate party, Joshi was present as a special invitee. Singh’s cavalcade which left from Delhi also had a car carrying Joshi. Joshi was given a prominent position on stage and he also spoke. In his speech Joshi had said, ‘V.P. Singh should become the second Mahatma Gandhi and change the unjust system in India which takes away the raw material at cheapest possible price from rural India.’ In an article Joshi wrote in the mouth piece of Sanghatana on 2 November 1987, he said, ‘V.P. Singh has not stepped out just to eradicate corruption but he has a much larger vision as he travels with us. Delhi has seen several kings in the past and V.P. Singh is also a king. But farmers are searching for their king Baliraja who was lost to them centuries ago. My hope is that in the form of V.P. Singh the farmers find their Baliraja.’ The same feeling Joshi expressed in several meetings and it showed the kind of high expectations he had from Singh. Both travelled together a lot, spoke at different meetings and became close to each other on a personal level. SS organized its first public meeting with Singh at Satana on 5 September 1987. It was followed by meetings in Dhule, Sangli, Kolhapur, Latur, Nagpur and many such cities. Each meeting attracted over one lakh farmers. Joshi also organized a similar mass meeting for Singh in Ahmedabad. Though Singh had held senior positions in government he was never known as a mass leader and seeing Joshi’s immense popularity with the farmers Singh was highly impressed. For the forthcoming general elections he gave a “blank cheque” to Joshi — full authority to decide all Janata Dal 254
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Sharad Joshi : Leading Farmers to the Centre Stage
