Jaitley laments Shatrughan Sinha signing Yakub mercy plea

NEW DELHI: BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha, who has been at cross purposes with his party on several issues, earned a reprimand from finance minister Arun Jaitley over his support for a petition against the death sentence handed to 1993 Mumbai blasts convict Yakub Memon.
Jaitley agreed that Sinha had embarrassed the party when asked about the former Bollywood star’s decision to protest against the death sentence.“Of course, it does,” Jaitley said when asked whether the signing of the petition by Sinha had embarrassed the party. “That is not the party's line. I think it is extremely sad that any member of BJP would sign such a petition,” he told 'Times Now'.
The statement shows that the BJP is ready to take on the Congress on the issue of terrorism and is also seen as a caution to Sinha.
Sinha was among a group of eminent jurists, MPs and leaders of political parties who submitted a petition to President Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday requesting him to consider Memon’s mercy plea. Shatrughan’s step had given ammunition to the opposition.
Earlier, Shatrughan embarrassed the party by criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his remarks against Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar during his recent visit to the state to launch the party’s election campaign. Modi had said there was something wrong with the Bihar CM’s DNA as he referred to his departure from NDA before the Lok Sabha polls and teaming up with Lalu Prasad to forge a front against BJP for the year-end assembly polls.