New Delhi: Rajya Sabha MP Ram Chander Jangra has started a controversy with his remarks regarding the victims of the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, suggesting they “should have fought the terrorists.”
Speaking at an event in Bhiwani, Haryana, celebrating the 300th birth anniversary of Ahilyabai Holkar, Jangra shockingly implied that the women who lost their husbands in the attack “lacked” the spirit of a ‘veerangna’ (warrior woman).
Jangra, a BJP MP, asserted that had the tourists undergone Agniveer training, the casualty count of 26 lives would have been significantly lower. In a statement that has drawn widespread condemnation, he declared, “Women, who lost their husbands, did not have the spirit and vigour… Therefore, they became victims of the attack. But terrorists do not leave one with requests. Our people died with folded hands.” He further posited that if these women had studied Holkar’s history, “nobody would have killed their husbands in this way in front of them.”
𝐏𝐚𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐠𝐚𝐦 𝐇𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐫, 𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐈𝐬 𝐀𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞?
— The Women Whose Husbands were Killed.
Yes, BJP MP #RamchanderJangra, by raising questions about the Women who witnessed their Husbands being killed by Terrorists in #Pahalgam, is indirectly holding them… pic.twitter.com/c8jTHp2bS0
— তন্ময় l T͞anmoy l (@tanmoyofc) May 25, 2025
“Had our tourists passed the training, then three terrorists could not have killed 26 people,” Jangra continued, stressing that victims “should have put up a fight” against the assailants. “They, terrorists, had come to kill people. They did not have mercy.” A video remarks made by him quickly went viral across social media platforms.
The comments drew immediate and fierce backlash from opposition leaders. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav lambasted Jangra, stating that “even the word ‘condemnable’ would object to writing this disgusting statement.” Yadav slammed the BJP, claiming this displayed the party’s “real face,” which he described as “anti-women mentality.”
“Instead of worshipping women, insulting them, condemning them and exploiting and harassing them in every possible way is the real face of the BJP, which is both disgusting and extremely shameful. BJP is not a party but a swamp of anti-women mentality,” Yadav wrote in an X post in Hindi.
Congress MP Deepender Singh Hooda echoed the sentiment, expressing disgust that a BJP MP was “working to ruin their (victims’) dignity” after their husbands had been tragically killed. Congress’s social media head, Supriya Shrinate, also condemned the remarks, highlighting the stark contrast between Jangra’s words and the party’s rhetoric on respecting women.
“BJP MP Ramchandra Jangra is talking about the women who lost their husbands in the Pahalgam attack. ‘She did not have the spirit of a warrior. She did not have passion, she did not have zeal, she did not have heart. That’s why they folded their hands and became a victim of the bullet’,” Shrinate quoted Jangra in her post.
