Senior BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya sparked controversy with his statements during a religious gathering organized in Indore on Thursday to celebrate the birth anniversaries of Hindu deities Ram and Mahavir.

Vijayvargiya said that girls who wear “dirty clothes” look like Surpanakha, referring to a demoness from the Hindu religious text Ramayana. “When I go out at night and see young people intoxicated, I feel like giving them five-seven [slaps] to sober them up. I swear to God," he said.

Surpanakha is the sister of the demon king Ravan, who according to popular versions of Ramayana tried to seduce Ram and his younger brother Lakshman. She attempted?to attack them after they reject her proposal, following which Lakshman severed her nose and ears.

"And the girls wear such dirty clothes... we think of women as goddesses... there's no trace of that in them. They look like Shurpanakha. God has given you a good body, wear nice clothes. Please teach your children well, I am very worried," the BJP leader was further quoted saying.

He has come under criticism from the opposition for his misogynist and demeaning comment about women. "BJP leaders humiliate women again and again. It shows their thinking and their attitude. BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya ji calling women as Shurpankha and making objectionable comments on their dress is appropriate in independent India. Apologize BJP!" said Congress spokesperson Sangeeta Sharma.

Hailing from Indore, Kailash Vijayvargiya has made a string of objectionable and controversial statements with impunity. Earlier in March, he claimed that after Independence and Partition, whatever was left of India constituted a "Hindu Rashtra", brazenly contradicting the country's founding principle of secularism.