<div align="justify">Gopalkrishna Gandhi on Tuesday rejected the Shiv Sena’s criticism for his move to save 1993 Mumbai blast convict Yakub Memon from death row.<br /><br />“Shiv Sena had to say what it has said... It is following its principle with devotion,” the joint Opposition candidate for the vice presidential election said.<br /><br />Gandhi said he opposed the capital punishment awarded to Memon because he firmly believed that death penalty belonged to the medieval ages.<br /><br />“I am merely following my principles as I am opposed to death penalty,” Gandhi said noting that two former Presidents – K R Narayanan and A P J Abdul Kalam, too, were opposed to capital punishment.<br /><br />Gandhi said he had, in a letter to President Pranab Mukherjee, requested to do what his predecessors had done.<br /><br />He said he had also written a similar petition for Indian citizen Kulbhushan Jadhav, facing death sentence in Pakistan.<br /><br />“As a common, independent citizen, it is my duty to fulfill my principles. I believe in that. I have drawn inspiration on death penalty from two persons – Mahatma Gandhi, who was opposed to it and Babasaheb Ambedkar, who said it was only proper to abolish it,” he said.</div>
<div align="justify">Gopalkrishna Gandhi on Tuesday rejected the Shiv Sena’s criticism for his move to save 1993 Mumbai blast convict Yakub Memon from death row.<br /><br />“Shiv Sena had to say what it has said... It is following its principle with devotion,” the joint Opposition candidate for the vice presidential election said.<br /><br />Gandhi said he opposed the capital punishment awarded to Memon because he firmly believed that death penalty belonged to the medieval ages.<br /><br />“I am merely following my principles as I am opposed to death penalty,” Gandhi said noting that two former Presidents – K R Narayanan and A P J Abdul Kalam, too, were opposed to capital punishment.<br /><br />Gandhi said he had, in a letter to President Pranab Mukherjee, requested to do what his predecessors had done.<br /><br />He said he had also written a similar petition for Indian citizen Kulbhushan Jadhav, facing death sentence in Pakistan.<br /><br />“As a common, independent citizen, it is my duty to fulfill my principles. I believe in that. I have drawn inspiration on death penalty from two persons – Mahatma Gandhi, who was opposed to it and Babasaheb Ambedkar, who said it was only proper to abolish it,” he said.</div>
