Bharatiya Janata Party MP Ram Chander Jangra on Saturday claimed that the women whose husbands were killed in the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam did not have the “spirit of warriors”, The Hindu reported.

The remarks led to a backlash from Opposition leaders, who demanded that he should be expelled from the BJP.

Addressing an event in Haryana’s Bhiwani, the Rajya Sabha MP said that women whose husbands were killed should have acted like “veerangna”, or warrior women, PTI reported. He also claimed that the casualties would have been less had the tourists fought back.

The terror attack at Baisaran near the town of Pahalgam on April 22 left 26 persons dead and 17 injured. The terrorists targeted tourists after asking their names to ascertain their religion, the police said. All but three of those killed were Hindu.

Opposition leaders criticised Jangra’s remarks on Saturday about the attack.

Calling the BJP MP’s remarks “shameful”, Congress MP Jairam Ramesh demanded an apology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for “this shameful statement”.

“BJP leaders are continuously insulting the Indian Army and the martyrs, which exposes their petty and low mentality,” Ramesh said on X. “This shameful statement of Rajya Sabha MP Ramchandra Jangra shows that the BJP, intoxicated with power, has become so insensitive that instead of blaming the security lapse for the sacrifice of the soldiers martyred in the Pahalgam terrorist attack, the BJP MPs are raising questions on the martyrs and their wives.”

He added: “Why should the silence of Prime Minister Modi and the BJP leadership not be considered a tacit acceptance of these statements?”

The Congress MP demanded Jangra’s expulsion from the Hindutva party.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said that the BJP was not a party “but a swamp of anti-women mentality”.

“Even the word ‘condemnable’ would object to being associated with this disgusting statement of the BJP MP about the victimised women of Pahalgam,” he said on X. “The real face of the BJP is not that of worshipping women, but of insulting them, condemning them and exploiting and harassing them in every possible way.”

Following the criticism, Jangra claimed that his statements were distorted and that he would not mind apologising if feelings were hurt, The Hindu reported.

The BJP MP claimed that he had made the comments in the context of how one was only taught about the British and the Mughals in history books in his time, The Hindu reported. However, the inclusion India’s “great warriors” in textbooks after 2014 had filled a sense of bravery in the youth, he had argued.