People holding constitutional positions becoming part of party politics, says Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge

NEW DELHI: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday slammed the suspension of opposition members from Parliament and said "those responsible for protecting MPs have failed in their constitutional duties." Kharge alleged that people holding constitutional positions were becoming part of party politics and doing politics of caste, region. Kharge targeted Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankar and said he had brought casteism in Parliament by raising an issue. Dhankar had objected to mimicry act by TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee in the Parliament premises during the protest by opposition MPs against their suspension. The Vice-President had also targeted Rahul Gandhi for making a video of the incident.'Conspiracy to convert Parliament into platform for ruling party'In his address to the Congress Working Committee meeting, Kharge accused the BJP of strangulating democracy. "There is a conspiracy to convert Parliament into a platform for the ruling party," Kharge said and added, "The country is watching how the BJP is strangulating democracy by arbitrarily passing key bills without discussion." The Congress president's sharp attack comes amid mass suspension of opposition MPs from both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. As many as 146 members have been suspended for disrupting proceedings over their demand for a statement from Union home minister Amit Shah over the December 13 Parliament security breach incident."We are repeatedly requesting LS Speaker, RS chairman to allow us to speak on security breach," Kharge said. He said the government does not want the House to function and accused the ruling party MPs of disrupting proceedings.