A BJP MP from Karnataka on Monday courted controversy by comparing Delhi University student Gurmehar Kaur, whose social media post against the ABVP has gone viral, with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.

BJP MP Pratap Simha, who represents Mysuru, on Sunday posted an image on micro-blogging site Twitter with the pictures of Gurmehar, the daughter of an Indian Army captain who died in the Kargil war, on one side and Dawood on the other.

In the post, Gurmehar, who launched a social media campaign against the RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad after last week's violence in Ramjas College, is addressed as a soldier's daughter and is compared with Dawood, who is addressed as the son of a policeman.

In the image, she is holding a placard "Pakistan did not kill my dad, war killed him" while Dawood is shown holding a placard which reads "I didn't kill people in 1993, bombs killed them." The caption reads "At least Dawood did not use the crutches of his father's name to justify his anti-national stand".

Condemning this, Congress said Simha "doesn't deserve to be in Parliament".

"Someone who has no respect for the families of martyrs, someone who has no respect for the pain of a young lady who grew up without her father because her father laid down his life to protect the unity and integrity of the country.

"Such a gentleman definitely has no right to sit on the highest portals of the Indian democracy," said Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari.

"Unfortunately this is an ethos which has become intrinsic to the BJP because it flows from the top. 

"When you have the prime minister (Narendra Modi) referring to the media as 'bazaroo', ministers referring to journalists as 'presstitutes', front organisations of the RSS and BJP perpetrating violence, then obviously their members of parliament feel that possibly by insulting the family members of the Kargil martyrs, they also may find a place in Modi's cabinet," he added.

Clashes erupted between activists of the All India Students Association (AISA) and the RSS' student wing ABVP outside Ramjas College here last week, a day after the ABVP forced suspension of an event to be addressed by Jawaharlal Nehru University student Umar Khalid.