Above the fold The day's top stories

1. Mehbooba Mufti says that the Peoples Democratic Party will reformulate its alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party only after trust is established.
2. Protesters seeking reservations set the Ratnachal Express on fire in Andhra Pradesh.
3. Badminton: Kidambi Srikanth wins maiden Syed Modi International title.
4. India vs Australia: With the series sealed, MS Dhoni says to Team India: “Don’t slip from here."
5. Russia and Turkey spar over new airspace violation claims.
6. At least 45 people dead in blasts near a Shia shrine in Damascus.

The Big Story: The Big Two spar

“They snatched his life. Now they want to steal his identity. Rohith and his struggle live on in our hearts." That was how Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi chose to respond on Saturday to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s statement last week that Rohith Vemula, the Hyderabad research scholar who committed suicide earlier this was not a Dalit.

The Bharatiya Janata Party, however, is unwilling to let the Congress have the last word on the tragedy, which has sparked protests across the country. Vemula hanged himself to death on January 17 after the university took punitive action against him and four colleagues of the Ambedkar Students Association in a series of event that started with an altercation with the BJP's student wing, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad.

The BJP described Rahul Gandhi's visit to the University of Hyderabad campus as the “politics of vulturisation”. On Sunday, Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu accused the Congress of staging "tamasha" politics over the suicide.

“Rohith’s is not the first incident [suicide]” Naidu said. "Ten incidents have happened during Congress regime. Nobody had the time. No Sonia, no Rahul and no Digvijaya Singh. Nobody came to HCU [Hyderabad Central University]. Nobody consoled, nor condoled. Suddenly now they are doing drama."

The BJP also continued its attempts at character assassination with respect to Vemula. BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya hinted darkly that he didn't quite believe that Vemula had killed himself. He said that “cannot be a weak youth, who would have committed suicide”. He also repeated the BJP charge that Vemula was a terrorist sympathiser, since his organisation had protested the execution in August of Mumbai bomb blast convict Yakub Memon.

“One who protested against the execution of terrorists, one who said he feels like sin whenever he sees saffron colour, one who publicly announced to organise beef party, one who offered namaz for terrorists like Yakub Memon cannot be a weak youth, who would have committed suicide,” Vijayvargiya said.

The Big Scroll
So who exactly is politicising Rohith Vemula’s suicide? The Congress or the BJP? Ten things the suicide of Rohith Vemula reveals about Indian society including the plight of Rohith Vemula’s mother.

In all of this, why has the BJP launched a concerted campaign to claim Rohith Vemula was not a Dalit? And is the campaign alienating its allies and supporters? Specially given that the BJP’s claim betray a shocking ignorance of the law.

Politicking and policying
1. Ending months of Government-Governor tussle, Justice Sanjay Mishra was sworn in as Uttar Pradesh's Lokayukta.
2. The absence of Sikh Regiment in the Republic Day parade has been deplored by the Punjab Chief Minister.
3. Supreme Court to take a call on gay rights on Tuesday.
4. Bad loan crisis: Finance Ministry and Niti Aayog pitch for state-owned asset reconstruction company with government and RBI contribution.

Punditry
1. The problem in Arunachal is as much about politics as about procedures and institutional norms, writes Suhas Palshikar in the Indian Express.
2. Is Bernie Sanders the true inheritor of Barack Obama’s mantle of "hope and change", or will tactical voting logic give Hillary Clinton the Democratic nomination, asks Narayanan Lakshman in the Hindu.
3. Even now there is no firm answer on Pathankot, writes Kanwal Sibal in the Telegraph.

Don't Miss
Increased BSF presence and arbitrary arrests are muting the local resistance to the mining in Rowghat range of hills, writes Raksha Kumar.

Currently, the plant gets its iron ore from the mines in Dalli-Rajhara, located halfway between Bhilai and Kanker. In the early 1990s, the Central government had allocated a portion of the Rowghat mines to the Steel Authority of India. But the company did not get environment and forest clearances till mid-2000s.

“Ever since the Bhilai Steel Plant was allocated these mines, the villages in the surrounding areas have seen a steady increase in security forces,” said Keshav*, a resident of Chhote Jaitpuri in Kanker district. In November 2012, the Bhilai Steel Plant took it upon itself to “fund barracks” of the paramilitary forces near the mines and all along the rail line that would connect Rowghat to Jagdalpur, the largest commercial centre in Bastar district.