immoral as well as illegal and a farmer was not obliged to repay them. The amount farmers lost because of the non-remunerative prices fixed by the government over the years was a few lakh crore rupees, whereas the entire amount due from the farmers towards loan repayment was only thirty three thousand crore rupees. Government should wave off that entire loan amount and clear the slate. Instead of doing that every now and then Government waived off a few hundred crores of loans, which was almost like giving alms to the beggar. And to call that loan waiver as karj mafi was like adding salt to the wound. Because you offer pardon to criminals and we farmers are not criminals. ‘Freedom from loan (karj mukti)’ would be the right expression.” Having done this homework Joshi announced a farmers’ rally in Jalgaon on 18 April 1988. In that rally he launched karj mukti andolan (agitation for freedom from debts). As a part of that it was decided that all farmers would declare themselves as insolvent thereby protecting them from the obligation of repaying that loan. A specific form in legal language was prepared and farmers filled up that form. It was later submitted in various courts as “insolvency petition”. In many courts there was not sufficient space to keep these petitions. The biggest chunk of such insolvency petitions was filed in the Nagpur High Court. While writing about the cotton growers’ agitation it has been mentioned how Advocate Bhausaheb Bobade and his son Advocate Sharad Bobade helped Joshi and SS in December 1986 in fighting the High Court case pertaining to their arrests. Even in the case of filing of these insolvency petitions the same Advocate Sharad Bobade played an important role. It is worth mentioning that Advocate Sharad Bobade later became the Chief Justice of India. This karj mukti andolan was led in Punjab as well. Joshi personally went to Punjab to assist with their struggle. On 22 August 1989 he addressed a mammoth crowd on the famous 268
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Sharad Joshi : Leading Farmers to the Centre Stage
