Rahul Gandhi visited the Haryana village where two children were killed on Monday (Press Trust of India photo)
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi lost his cool today during his visit to a village in Haryana, where two Dalit children had been burned alive. When a reporter asked him if it was a photo-op, Mr Gandhi hit back, saying it was an insulting suggestion.
"It is insulting that someone says that. People are dying left right and center in this country. People are being beaten up... What do you mean its an photo op?" he said. "Yes absolutely I will visit. I will visit again and again and again."
Later, his office tweeted a clarification:
The children -- two-and-a-half year old Vaibhav and 11-month-old Divya - had died after their house was set on fire, allegedly by members of an upper caste community.
Their mother, who sustained 70 per cent burns, is fighting for life. Their father sustained burns too.
Mr Gandhi took on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party the BJP, which rules the state and its chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, saying it was their attitude that results in such tragedies. He also blamed the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological mentor of the BJP.
"This is an attitude shared by Prime Minister, the Chief Minister, the BJP and the RSS -- If somebody is weak, they can be crushed. What you are seeing is the result of this attitude," he said. "They are weak and poor, that is why they are being treated like this. This is not the government of the weak."
Mr Gandhi, who had been mocked time and again by the BJP for staying with Dalit families in the run up to last year's Lok Sabha elections, insisted that he would visit the people in such situations. "Absolutely I will visit. I will visit again, again and again," he said.