CHANDIGARH: Jannayak Janta Party leader Digvijay Singh Chautala on Thursday apologised for the lathicharge on farmers in Kurukshetra's Pipli last week, saying if any of them was hit, they feel it was the family of the late Devi Lal.
Digvijay Chautala, whose party is a coalition partner of the BJP in the state, is the great grandson of the former deputy prime minister.
Earlier, his elder brother and Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala had condemned the lathicharge on farmers during a protest on September 10.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, the JJP leader said he belonged to a farming family and know their feelings.
We apologise to the farmers who were lathicharged, he said, assuring that the "matter will be probed".
He said if farmers faced any pain and hit by lathi (stick), they feel it was not on them but on the "family of Jannayak Chaudhary Devi Lal".
Digvijay said the JJP always stood by farmers and their interest will be supreme for them.
He also hit out at the Congress, saying the party is "conspiring" to defame Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala.
He said the deputy CM had no role in the lathicharge on farmers.
The JJP leader said the Centre has assured that the MSP regime for crops will continue.
"We have to take the Union government's word. There is no need for farmers to get misled and feel upset," he said, adding that opposition parties were misleading them for their selfish interests.
JJP state president Nishan Singh too assured farmers that his party will work with the government to fulfil their promises.
In response to a media query about JJP MLA Devender Babli, who has demanded a change in the party leadership claiming that there was "dissatisfaction" among most of the party's 10 MLAs, Digvijay Chautala said this is an "internal" matter of the party.
"Our entire party is like a family and we will sit together and talk," he said.