TG must keep its promise to Tenant farmers: Yogendra Yadav

T P Venu I hyderabad

Political activist Yogendra Yadav said it was the Congress government’s moral responsibility to implement its six guarantees, particularly its promise to recognise tenant farmers under the 2011 Act. He was speaking at a State-level round-table meeting on recognition of tenant farmers here on Friday.

Yadav recalled that he was part of a People’s Jury at a 2023 public hearing on tenant farmers in Hyderabad. He said Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, then PCC president, had written an open letter on September 13, 2023, promising recognition of tenant farmers. “Nearly three years later, tenant farmers remain in the same situation,” Yadav said, appealing to the Chief Minister to fulfil his promise. He warned that if the government failed to act and tenant farmers launched a dharna, he would return to support their agitation.

Farmers from various districts said they were unable to access government schemes, from subsidised urea to procurement facilities. They also opposed app-based and OTP-dependent systems requiring landowners’ cooperation, saying only a small percentage of owners provided OTPs. They demanded cultivator cards under the 2011 Cultivators Act. Convenor Prof D Narasimha Reddy said the committee was conducting meetings in 15 districts and meeting collectors, MLAs and ministers to press for identification of tenant farmers.

Prof G Haragopal, MLC Prof Kodandaram and former Education Commission chairman Akunuri Murali backed the demand. They said tenant farmers, particularly from SC, BC, ST and minority communities, were among the most vulnerable and deserved government support. Kanneganti Ravi said a State-level dharna would be organised if the government did not begin the identification process by the second week of September. ‘Modi’s carefully cultivated image loses its sheen’

Speaking on the sidelines of a State-Level Round Table Meeting on the Recognition of Tenant Farmers in Telangana on Friday, political activist Yogendra Yadav said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s carefully cultivated image had lost its sheen following recent student protests at Jantar Mantar. He said the public anger reflected a clear shift in India’s political mood and marked a new phase of public resistance.

Rejecting suggestions that the CJP protest was sponsored, Yadav said students had reached the venue on their own and that the gathering numbered well over a lakh. Unlike conventional protests organised through political party networks, he said, the movement was organic, with students from across the country travelling to Delhi. Describing the anger as “phenomenal”, Yadav said the protests signalled the emergence of a powerful youth force.

Asked whether the CJP could evolve into a political party, he said it was possible and stressed that young people should engage with politics. “We have never witnessed such anger or heard such words spoken about the Prime Minister,” he said, adding that the intensity of the protests reflected deep frustration among the youth over the state of affairs. Yadav expressed hope that young people would increasingly focus on broader social and political issues.