New Delhi, (The Telegraph): The yawning chasm between the principal political parties of the country was on display today over the death of two toddlers who were burnt alive on the outskirts of Delhi.

Rahul Gandhi, who was visiting the Dalit home in Haryana's Faridabad, today exploded in anger when he was asked about the BJP's descriptions of such gestures as a "photo-op". No senior BJP leader is known to have made such a statement in public today but the question appeared to have been derived from the earlier swipes at Rahul by the party.

The Congress leader had chosen not to comment publicly on the Dadri lynching when he visited the family of Mohammed Akhlaque, who was killed on unsubstantiated suspicion of cow slaughter and beef consumption.

But today, after meeting the parents of the two Dalit children - Vaibhav, aged two and a half years, and Divya, 11 months - in a village in Faridabad, Rahul declared that the Haryana government had no concern for the weak and the poor. Haryana is now ruled by the BJP.

Rahul said: "This is an attitude shared by the Prime Minister, the Haryana chief minister, the BJP and the RSS - an attitude that if somebody is weak, he can be crushed. What you have seen is the result of this attitude."

Asked by a reporter for his response to the BJP's purported charge that his visit was just a "photo-op (photo opportunity)", Rahul flared up.

"It is insulting if somebody says it is a photo-op. It is insulting not to me but it is insulting to these people. What is this photo-op, what do you mean...? People are dying, people are being beaten up left, right and centre in this country. What is this photo-op?" Rahul asked.

He asserted: "I will visit again and again and again. We want that such incidents should not be repeated. We will fight to ensure that."

Dalits are important in the Congress's revival scheme, and in Bihar, the community is expected to play a decisive role in the ongoing Assembly elections.

Rahul's assertion was seized by the Congress to send across a message to the larger audience. Party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi highlighted what he described as the insensitivity of the BJP in ridiculing the visit to the affected family. "The Congress tried to extend a hand of compassion and the BJP called it a photo-op. Condolence is photo-op for the BJP," Singhvi said.

Alleging that the country was witnessing a "conceited and concerted" effort at fanning inter-community and inter-caste flames, Singhvi said: "We saw an advertisement by the Haryana government in the newspapers today. It said - " Na zulm, na bhrastachar/Ek varsh, sarvatra harsh (No oppression, no corruption/One year, joy everywhere)." What can be a bigger irony? They call compassion a photo-op and we want to know what was Swachh Bharat and Yoga Day if not a photo-op for the Prime Minister?"

In the past few days, the Congress and the BJP have bitterly fought on the Dadri lynching and the writers' protest. An unbridgeable divide appears to have struck deep roots and it can affect the winter session of Parliament.

The monsoon session had been washed out and the incidents of the past few weeks have pushed the two parties further away from each other, making even systemic engagements impossible.

This was vividly reflected in Mani Shankar Aiyar's scathing attack on finance minister Arun Jaitley on the question of writers' protest.

Responding to Jaitley's blog in which he talked of "manufactured dissent" and accused the writers of "doing politics of other means," Aiyar wrote on a website: "Can't you see the atmosphere of intolerance? Do you not feel it in your bones? When a man is killed and his son left for dead for not following the dictates of the self-righteous clan you belong to, do you not see that as intolerance? When you hear the reactions of your ministerial colleagues, your parliamentary comrades, your party bullies, does not the stench of intolerance fill your nostrils? When faces are blackened for holding a different view, is that par for the course? When stadia are vandalised by your partners in state governments, does that not disgust you? It does us."

The Haryana incident evoked widespread condemnation and several political parties attacked the BJP government.

The CPM politburo said in a statement: "Clearly, the upper caste sections have been emboldened by the aggressive communal and casteist agenda being pursued in the state of Haryana under the BJP state government."

Photo credit: The Telegraph