son, Parimal, continues their tradition. A civil engineer and builder, Parimalbhai shared with this writer his memories of Joshi. He said, “Bipinbhai and Gunwantbhai went all the way to Ambethan to meet Joshi after they heard about the sugarcane agitation. In the first meeting itself their wavelengths matched. Both developed great affection for Joshi. They participated in all the major agitations of Shetkari Sanghatana in subsequent years. They would also take some other farmers from Gujarat with them. They also helped financially and in every other possible way. When Joshi was arrested in Chandigarh in 1984 both of them were also arrested with him.” Parimalbhai also shared about various visits Joshi made to Gujarat in later years in connection with the farmers’ struggle. The first such struggle was when SS organized two yatras starting from 2 October 1984 to prepare for the mass meeting at Tehere which has been written about in earlier chapter. One of the yatras travelled through Gujarat and Joshi travelled with it. It started in Bardoli, the area where Bipinbhai and Gunwantbhai had a strong hold. That yatra ended at Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad on 9 October where a large meeting also took place. In 1989 while canvassing for V.P. Singh, Joshi had also travelled with him through Gujarat. During that travel a large meeting was organized for Singh in Ahmedabad. After that meeting ended a national meet of KCC took place in Ahmedabad and Singh spoke there as well. All these were efforts on the part of Joshi to familiarize the future Prime Minister with the real issues facing Indian farmers. In all these activities Bipinbhai and Gunwantbhai were wholeheartedly involved. Apart from the struggles of the farmers the two were also personal friends with Joshi. Said Parimalbhai, ‘In 1999 Joshi had a heart attack. He found it difficult to get 278
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Sharad Joshi : Leading Farmers to the Centre Stage
