Samajwadi Party Member of Parliament Naresh Agrawal was in an eye of a storm today after seemingly suggesting that the treatment meted out to Kulbhushan Jadhav's family was justified since the jailed Indian national was a terrorist.

Within an hour of the reports of his comment, Agrawal issued a clarification saying he had never called Jadhav a terrorist and that his comment was pre-faced with a big "if".

Agrawal said his actual comment was, "If Pakistan considers Kulbhushan Jadhav to be a terrorist, then it (Pakistan) will behave with him accordingly; in India we must treat terrorists in a similar manner, with toughness," Agrawal's actual comment, translated from Hindi, read.

Here is his full comment in Hindi as recorded by news agency ANI on camera: "Agar unhone (Pakistan) Kulbhushan Jadhav ko aatankwadi apne desh mein mana hai, to wo uss hisaab se vyavhaar karenge; humare desh mein bhi aatankwadiyon ke saath aisa hi vyavhaar karna chahiye, kada vyavhar karna chahiye."

Agrawal came under fire from multiple quarters with BJP MP Subramaninan Swamy demanding a Rajya Sabha resolution seeking an "apology and deep regret". "If he refuses (to apologise) we should move [a] motion to examine whether his conduct is not befitting (sic) that of an MP and therefore his membership should be terminated."

The Rajya Sabha MP's comments in the background of a rising uproar over the reported treatment of Kulbhushan Jadhav's wife and mother in pakistan.

Jadhav is on death row in a Pakistani prison on charges of espionage.

Pakistani authorities had allowed Jadhav to meet Chetankul and Avanti, his wife and mother respectively on Christmas Day.

But according to a ministry of External Affairs spokesperson the two visitors were ill treated and the atmosphere of the meeting was intimidating to the family members.

Jadhav's wife and mother were asked to remove their mangalsutras, bangles, bindis and footwear before the meeting.

Worse was Avanti Jadhav was not allowed to speak in Marathi with her son; everytime she tried she was interrupted.

In fact Chetankul's shoes were not returned.

Pakistan has denied all the charges calling the allegations "baseless". However, the Pakistan Foreign Office confirmed that it had confiscated Jadhav's wife's footwear.

"There was something in the shoes," was how the Foreign Office reacted. Sources within the Foreign Office told India Today that the footwear may contain metal and was suspected of being a security threat.