to note that Tikait himself joined the Congress party in 2003 and later the BJP. But that is a subsequent story. Even after that open rift in Delhi, Joshi made peace with him. Together they decided to have a massive farmers’ rally next year in Delhi to draw attention of the nation to farmers’ demands. Tikait came to Ambethan and stayed for couple of days to prepare. That time Joshi objected to the presence of his armed bodyguards. It created some turmoil but eventually Tikait agreed to keep his bodyguards outside the room and not inside. Apart from that initial altercation, the meeting was peaceful. It was decided that they would include retired jawans as well in the rally. Most jawans did come from farming families and after their retirement returned to their farm. So, the participation of jawans with farmers was a good idea. It also reflected the spirit behind Lal Bahadur Shastri’s slogan, “Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan”. To plan further, a KCC meeting was held in Delhi on 13 and 14 July 1989. According to a well-known journalist Neerja Chowdhury, who was present at this meeting on Delhi’s Manav Mandir Road, it was attended by 175 persons representing 34 farmers’ bodies. Her report published in Indian Express also noted that most of those attending were farmers themselves and had obviously come from very poor background. Many had just about enough money for their second class train travel. Most of the journalists who covered that meeting were quite moved to see those farmers’ leaders. In that meeting, Tikait reiterated his usual point that there should be “one leader, one flag, one name” for the united body of the farmers. Joshi repeated his stance that they were not an organization but just a coordination committee of different independent organizations and that nature of KCC should remain unchanged; it was far better at that stage to work together informally under the collective leadership. Tikait argued against that probably because he clearly saw himself as 272
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Sharad Joshi : Leading Farmers to the Centre Stage
