Akali Dal (Amritsar) MP Simranjit Singh Mann landed in a controversy on Friday after calling freedom fighter Bhagat Singh a terrorist, PTI reported. Leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party and Akali Dal called for legal action against him.

Akali Dal (Amritsar) is a splinter group of the Akali Dal.

At a press conference in Karnal on Thursday, reporters had questioned the newly-elected MP about an earlier instance where he had used the term for Bhagat Singh.

In response, Mann said: “Sardar Bhagat Singh had killed a young English officer, he had killed an Amritdhari Sikh constable, Channan Singh...He had hurled a bomb into the National Assembly at that time. Now, you tell me whether Bhagat Singh was a terrorist or not.”

On Friday, Punjab mnister and Aam Aadmi Party leader Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer said that Mann should apologise for his comments.

“I want to make it clear with full responsibility that the Punjab government will bestow martyr status to Bhagat Singh,” Hayer said at a press conference. He added that if Mann does not apologise, the Punjab government would initiate legal action against him.

Akali Dal leader and former Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal wrote on Twitter that Mann should apologise for making a “ridiculous remark”.

“By calling him [Bhagat Singh] a terrorist, @SimranjitSADA [Mann] has disrespected the supreme sacrifice of our national hero,” Harsimrat Kaur Badal wrote.

Akali Dal chief and MP Sukhbir Singh Badal said that Mann’s comments had lowered the image of Sikhs all over the world.

Mann who got elected as the Sangrur MP in a bye-poll held last month, has made controversial comments in the past as well, NDTV reported.

He had attributed his poll success to separatist leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and said that he would raise the matter of the “Army’s atrocities in Kashmir” in Parliament.