The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)will hold a candle march in Punjab on Friday to pay homage to farmers who have lost lives during the ongoing farmers’ agitation against farm laws.

In a statement on Thursday, AAP legislator and farmers’ wing state president Kultar Singh Sandhwan said that there was resentment among the farmers across the country against the black farm laws made by the Narendra Modi-led Central government and in protest against them, the farmers had been on protest across the country for a year and were making sacrifices.

He said AAP will pay tribute to the martyr farmers by holding candle marches across Punjab on Friday in protest against the three black agricultural laws and will observe 17 September as ‘Black Day’.

Sandhwan said only with the consent of the present Captain Amarinder Singh government in Punjab, the Modi government at the Centre had made all three black agriculture laws and economically ruined agriculture, farmers and all other dependent sections.

“PM Narendra Modi along with Captain Amarinder Singh and Parkash Singh Badal are equally responsible for this destruction,” he added. Sandhwan said on 17 September 2020, all three black agriculture Bills were passed in the Lok Sabha, so this day will be observed as ‘Black Day’. After this, it was passed in the Rajya Sabha on 20 September, he added.

Since that time, the farmers of the country have been struggling to get the three black farm laws repealed by holding dharnas across the country, he said. Sandhwan said in this time period of one year, more than 600 farmers who opposed these black laws have attained martyrdom.

“The farmers have made it clear to the Captain government in the state and the Modi government at the centre that they will not lift the dharna, till the agriculture laws are not repealed. The Central government along with the Captain government in Punjab has cheated the farmers,” he added.

The AAP leader further said the farmers who entrusted the responsibility of their security to Captain Amarinder Singh and his party, the same Congress government along with the Central government have betrayed the ‘annadatas’. Sandhwan said the AAP stands firmly on every front with the farmers and the farmer leaders of Punjab along with Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and other states.