Former Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yashwant Sinha on Saturday criticised his son Jayant Sinha on Twitter for garlanding eight men convicted of lynching a cattle trader in Jharkhand last year. “Earlier I was the nalayak baap of a layak beta. Now the roles are reversed. This is twitter. I do not approve of my son’s action. But I know even this will lead to further abuse. You can never win.”

He was referring to the abuse he would face for his comments. After he was both praised and attacked on Twitter, Yashwant Sinha tweeted again:

Yashwant Sinha has been at odds with the BJP since September, when he wrote an article attacking the government for the economic slowdown. His son, a Union minister, had responded in a newspaper article, defending the government.

Several Opposition leaders also attacked Jayant Sinha for felicitating the convicts. But the minister of state for civil aviation defended himself, saying he was “honoring due process of law”. He called the criticism from Opposition parties “irresponsible statements”, and said, “Those that are innocent will be spared and guilty will be appropriately punished. I have full faith in our judiciary and rule of law.”

The men were convicted of attacking and lynching cattle trader Alimuddin Ansari in Ramgarh area of Hazaribagh district of Jharkhand on June 27, 2017. The Jharkhand High Court had suspended the convicts’ life sentences in June.