Santbal A Saint with a Difference

Author(s): T U Mehta
Publisher: Navjivan Prakashan Mandir

Page 75

sell their produce at a much higher price than the controlled price which existed before.
It was under these circumstances that Santbalji proposed to the farmers that they should sell their produce only at a reasonable rate and not try to exploit the situation for their selfish ends.
This was indeed, a great psychological jolt to the people who were up-till now exploited by merchants, middlemen and Government servants in price rates as well as weights and measurements of their hard earned produce, and who had got an opportunity to make good their loss in the previous years. They advanced all sorts of businesslike arguments against the proposal and also pointed out that by way of reciprocity, they were not going to get their necessities at "reasonable" price from others.
Santbalji accepted the force of their arguments and admitted that they were rightly feeling that he was coming in their way to make some earning when they had got an opportunity to do so. He, however, pointed out that the very basis of their organisation was ethical and if they could show their social and public spirit by taking some voluntary cut in the price rates, they would be able to demonstrate to the public and the Government that they were rightly called "Fathers of the Nation". He also pointed out that if the rates of farm produce were allowed to soar very high, the Government would also think of reimposing control. He further pointed out that if they could show public spirit by voluntarily accepting some cut in the rates of their farm produce, in future when the market price of farm produce would go down, they would have all justification to urge the Government that some support price should be fixed for the purchase of their farm produce.
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