a cause. Moreover, getting a fair price for the produce was not the end of the agony. That price was not a permanent price; next year again the farmers had to struggle for remunerative price. Several factors controlled prices and unless you changed the overall system there was never going to be an end to farmers’ agony. Even physically, it was difficult. Rail roko, rasta roko were important weapons in their agitations. They required swift, secretive movements of people, hiding themselves from police, clandestine ways of passing on messages and emerging abruptly at a decided spot of agitation. This was where Joshi became known as the “Robin Hood of farmers”. But to keep doing that for long was physically getting tough as he aged. State machinery was so powerful that it could crush any agitation by brute force. To clear a road blocked by even one lakh farmers was not too difficult for police. Farmers, who suffered the brunt of police lathis once, were not going to be enthusiastic about blocking a road again. Many farmers were tortured in the lock up and were not likely to court arrests again. The court cases continued for years and it was an awful ordeal for concerned farmers. SS was never organized enough professionally to have the resources that could support the aggrieved farmers in such cases. Joshi personally had been to jail over twenty times and over a hundred and a quarter cases had been filed in various courts against him. The battle against government machinery was unevenly matched and it was very difficult to hold on for long. Over the years, the government had also grown increasingly incorrigible. It was never particularly perturbed if a road remained blocked for a few hours. For the State, it had become just a daily routine. It had the machinery to take care of such issues and government activities went on undisturbed. Money 294
Q
Sharad Joshi : Leading Farmers to the Centre Stage
