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Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi met the victims of the caste violence in Sunpedh, a village in Faridabad near Delhi, on Wednesday.
During his visit to the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled state, Gandhi heard the grievances of the family members of the victims. Two children of a Dalit family died and their parents suffered burn injuries after their home was set on fire, allegedly by upper-caste Rajputs in Sunpedh village on Tuesday.
The Congress vice president alleged that the increase in hate crime incidents was a result of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s attitude. He also lashed out at Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar for ignoring the plight of the people of the state.
“The poor people are being harassed here. When they went to the administration, they were told that nobody has died yet and they should go away. Strict action must be taken against the erring police officials,” Gandhi said.
“I will help them in any way I can. They just have to speak about it,” he added.
Gandhi further said that the family members of the victims demand a CBI probe into the unfortunate incident.
The Congress vice-president later lost his cool when asked whether this was a photo opportunity. “What do you mean by photo-op? Whenever people die, I will come again and again,” he told the media.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has sought a report from Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on the incident.
The incident in Sunped village took place on a day when Finance Minister Arun Jaitley spoke out firmly against the acts of vandalism in the country. He said all right-thinking sections disapproved of this extremely disturbing trend.
Photographs: @officeofRG/Twitter