HEAD LINE:

• Now, Antony in charge of govt (TOI)
• PM moved out of ICU, doctors to take decision on discharge today (TOI)
• Human rights? Terrorist is an animal, we need animal rights: Apex court judge (TOI)

LEAD:

With Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi making it clear to the Congress high command that pressure was mounting on the DMK to pull out from the UPA Govt if there was no visible action by the Centre to intervene in Sri Lanka, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee today left for Colombo, ostensibly to express India's concern about the plight of the Tamils hit by the war in the island north. Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi, daughter of Karunanidhi, was learnt to have conveyed the DMK chief's message to Congress president Sonia Gandhi. It was this message that forced Mukherjee to leave for Sri Lanka though PM Manmohan Singh is still in hospital, recuperating after a heart bypass surgery. Before leaving for Colombo, Mukherjee, who spoke to Karunanidhi about his visit, told reporters: "We have no sympathy for any terrorist activity by any organisation, particularly LTTE (which) is a banned organisation in India." At the same time, (IE)

• New Delhi: With foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee leaving for Colombo and PM Manmohan Singh still recuperating in hospital, defence minister AK Antony is holding charge of the govt. Mukherjee, who is the number 2 in the hierarchy, has been holding charge ever since the PM underwent bypass surgery on Saturday. But he had to leave for Sri Lanka on an urgent official visit on Tuesday. Sources said the PM was up and ready for any consultation because of his speedy recovery after the surgery. (TOI)
• Belgaum/Bangalore: Under fire for not acting swiftly against leaders of "Hindu" groups who attacked women in a Mangalore pub three days ago for behaving in a manner contrary to "Indian culture", the BJP govt on Tuesday arrested Sri Ram Sene convenor Prasad Attavar and Rashtriya Hindu Sena chief Pramod Mutalik. The crackdown on the selfstyled Hindu leaders Mutalik has justified the attacks and the SRS has claimed credit for it follows outrage over the manner in which women and other guests at the pub were targeted with the Sene having "invited" some media teams to witness the assaults. Though Mutalik has been arrested in a separate case relating to distribution of inflammatory pamphlets and calls to form "Hindu suicide squads", his Rashtriya Hindu Sena and SRS are clearly linked. The SRS is described as an offshoot of Mutalik's outfit and the rabble rousing leader is a former Bajrang Dal man. (TOI)
• New Delhi: Almost 11 years after former CM of Bihar Jagannath Mishra was expelled from the Congress, the stage looks set for the veteran leader's homecoming. His entry into the Congress would give a big fillip to the UPA, which continues to be in disarray in the state barely three months ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Mishra has already arrived in the Capital to finalise the roadmap of his homecoming with the Congress leadership, it was reliably learnt. He has also sought an appointment with Congress president Sonia Gandhi who is yet to make up her mind about his entry into the party, say sources. Barely two weeks before Sonia had taken over the Congress mantle in March 1998, had the then party president Sitaram Kesri expelled Mishra for six years reportedly to spike any chances of his return to the party. (IE)
• New Delhi: The Centre's continuing legal acrobatics to give a speedy burial to the alleged disproportionate assets case against Mulayam Singh Yadav and his kin failed to yield the desired results in the Supreme Court, which on Tuesday did not permit the CBI to look at the case afresh in the light of representations from the Yadav clan. First, the change in CBI's counsel from additional solicitor general Gopal Subramaniam to another ASG, Mohan Parasaran amid speculation of growing pressure from SP for an early closure of the case was met with scepticism as a Bench comprising Justices Altamas Kabir and Cyriac Joseph demanded an undertaking that the agency would not drop its counsels anymore. More importantly, however, the court remained unmoved by Solicitor General G E Vahanvati's statement before the court that his earlier opinion to the Centre for virtual closure of the DA case has become "irrelevant" and that CBI be permitted to have a relook at the case. (TOI)
• Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India has sent a strong, and unambiguous, message to all banks in the country cut lending rates. Announcing the third quarter review of the monetary policy for 2008-09, RBI governor D Subbarao said that the central bank's downward adjustment of all benchmark policy rates over the past three months had given the banking system enough opportunity to further cut lending rates. However, the RBI itself left all its benchmark rates untouched. The logic given by the governor was that the central bank had cut rates aggressively in the past three months, bringing them down to ''historically lowest levels''. The repo rate the rate at which RBI lends short term fund to banks was brought down from 9% to 5.5%, the reverse repo rate (the rate at which banks park their surplus funds with RBI) from 6% to 4% and the cash reserve ratio (the proportion of money that banks have to mandatorily keep with RBI at nil interest rate) from 9% to 5% of the total deposits. (TOI)

MANMOHAN SINGH & GOVT

PM Manmohan Singh and Congress president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi paid rich tributes to the former President, R. Venkataraman, who died here on Tuesday. Dr. Singh described him as an "outstanding figure" in public life. "The former President will be long remembered for his services to the nation, the strength of his character and his knowledge and wisdom," he said in a condolence message from hospital where he is recovering after bypass surgery. Ms. Gandhi said Mr. Venkataraman had piloted ship of the State and had a distinguished career at diverse levels spreading over several decades. The former PM and Janata Dal (Secular) president H.D. Deve Gowda, in a condolence message, recalled the over six decades-long service of Mr. Venkataraman to Tamil Nadu and to the nation in various capacities. He was one among the last few stalwarts the country would remember always for the service rendered, he said.(HINDU)

BJP

The Sangh Parivar has once again been caught on the wrong foot by violent Hindu zealots in Mangalore who have indulged in public violence, this time against women at a pub on Saturday, just months after committing arson against churches for carrying out "conversions". The BJP has condemned the incidents, but is on the backfoot with some of the leading lights of the Sri Ram Sene having once been members of Bajrang Dal. The recurrence of violence after the attacks on churches drew worldwide condemnation is something the BJP could have done without. Some senior BJP leaders like L K Advani have realised the adverse fallout of saffron hooliganism on sections of middle India that the party wants to woo but the latent, and sometimes active, sympathies of BJP-RSS leaders have led groups like SRS to proliferate. It is not a coincidence that SRS leaders like Pramod Mutalik and Prasad Attavar have launched aggressive mobilization on "Hindu" issues despite Mangalore having been in the news for all the wrong reasons. The actions of the SRS are somewhat similar, at least in their motivation, to the Abhinav Bharat gang which has been charged for the Malegaon blasts. Mutalik is reportedly "disappointed" with the BJP-RSS and was sidelined by the Sangh which found his views too hard to stomach. Yet, the duo was able to go about their hate-filled, sectarian agendas without being seriously challenged. (TOI)

CONGRESS

Congress on Tuesday deplored the attack on girls by a self-proclaimed saffron brigade in Mangalore and said the incident was indicative of an "intolerant culture". "It is not just a law and order issue, it reflects a new philosophy of intolerance and divisiveness," party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi told reporters. He claimed it was not mere coincidence that such events had been taking place in BJP-ruled states. (TOI)

• Barely three months ahead of the general elections, the Congress high command on Tuesday appointed former Union minister K P Singh Deo as the president of the party's Orissa unit. Three working presidents Chandrasekhar Sahu, L B Mahapatra and Bhakta Charan Das were also appointed to assist the 67-year-old Singh Deo, who is widely believed to be not in the best of terms with party veteran J B Patnaik. All the three working presidents have also been critical of Patnaik of late. Patnaik had to resign from the post of the Congress Legislature Party leader in the Orissa Assembly three days ago, under pressure from the party high command. However, in what is being seen as a move to pacify the four-time CM, Patnaik has been appointed a permanent invitee to the Congress Working Committee, the highest decision-making body of the party. (IE)

STATES

J&K

Noting that the situation in the State has "considerably" improved, J&K Tourism Minister Nawang Rigzin Jora on Tuesday said the Govt will initiate measures to convince countries to withdraw travel advisories to their citizens against visiting the State. "The govt will initiate measures to convince countries to withdraw travel advisories on J&K as situation in the State has considerably improved," the Minister said at a seminar 'Tourism to J&K challenges and way out' here. Asking people to spread the message of peace, he said the govt has taken various measures to promote tourism in different parts of the State. "The Jammu region has a great potential for pilgrim tourism while in Ladakh, heritage and adventure tourism can be the unique selling proportions." (HINDU)

MADHYA PRADESH

In view of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, Madhya Pradesh Govt will present a vote-on-account for four months instead of the regular budget session, usually held in February and March. Official sources said here on Tuesday that the vote-on-account would be presented during the budget session while the full general budget would be placed before the Assembly during the monsoon session. They said that such a decision was taken as the Central govt would also present vote-on-account for four months instead of the general budget because of parliamentary polls. (HINDU)

MAHARASHTRA

In a new twist to the alleged heroin racket run by former zonal director of the Narcotics Control Bureau Saji Mohan, who was arrested by the Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Saturday, the IPS officer has reportedly told ATS investigators that consignments of heroin sourced from Pakistan were delivered to his house in Chandigarh by a smuggler operating on the J&K border. According to the ATS, the seized packets of "high-grade" white heroin bear Pak markings like '555' and 'B52.' The ATS recovered an additional 25 kg of heroin its first haul was of 13.85 kg from a rented apartment in Naigaon on Monday. Mohan, a 1995 batch IPS officer, was recently posted as the Deputy Director of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in Kochi, and was with NCB in Chandigarh from Feb 2007 to Dec 2008. It was around this period that he also handled NCB's Srinagar office. (IE)

RAE BARELI

Calling it a "historic day", UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi finally performed the "bhumi pujan" of the proposed rail coach factory in Lalganj, Rae Bareli, on Tuesday. The ceremony, which was also attended by Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi, took place more than three months after the project was stalled by the Mayawati Govt, which cancelled land allotment for it at the last minute, claiming farmers objected to the factory coming up here. While Sonia spoke of how the factory would provide jobs to more than 8,000 people and would be pollution-free, she refrained from commenting on the UP Govt, saying, "Laluji has already spoken about it". The Railway Minister had openly criticised the UP Govt for delaying the project, saying it was unacceptable to politicise development. About the attacks on north Indians by MNS activists in Mumbai during the railway board exams, he joked, "Now I will also open an apprentice institute here. Then you won't have to go to Mumbai and get attacked." (IE)

RAJASTHAN

JAIPUR: The opposition BJP in Rajasthan boycotted the Governor's customary "At Home" function at Raj Bhavan on the evening of Republic Day. No one from the BJP organisation, including the Leader of the Opposition and former CM Vasundhara Raje, or her colleagues in the erstwhile Cabinet or the Assembly was present except for former Deputy Speaker Ramnarain Vishnoi. The party leaders had also kept away from the Republic Day Parade function at Sawai Man Singh Stadium earlier in the morning where Governor Shailendra Kumar Singh hoisted the Tricolour and took salute. The State-level Republic Day function was held at the SMS stadium this time after three years as the previous Govt had introduced rotation of the celebrations from one city to the other. The new Govt restored the earlier protocol of holding the main function here in the Capital. (HINDU)

UTTAR PRADESH

More than 2,000 people will leave Azamgarh in UP for Delhi on Wednesday on the 'Ulema Special' train. The trip has both the UP and Delhi police in a tizzy, since the passengers are making the journey to protest the "framing of Azamgarh youth in Terror cases" and to demand a CBI inquiry into the Batla House encounter. The demonstration will be held in Delhi's Boat Club on Thursday. The 24-coach train, which has been booked for Rs 11 lakh for the return journey, will travel across UP, from east to west, picking up passengers along the way. The train will reach Delhi on Thursday morning and will head back the same evening. Among the travellers will be relatives of Atif Amin and Chhota Sajid, who were killed in the Batla House encounter in September last year. Also present will be family members and supporters of several alleged Indian Mujahideen activists from Azamgarh who have been arrested for their suspected involvement in cases including the Jaipur, Delhi and Ahmedabad blasts in 2008. (IE)

EDITORIAL

Malegaon to Mangalore: An unintended consequence of the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai was the dismantling of the contrived moral equivalence drawn between jihadi terrorism and Hindu extremism. The scale of the carnage and the professional ruthlessness of the attackers brought home the absurdity of putting a global network of Terror on par with amateurish grandstanding. Last Sunday's hooliganism in a Mangalore pub planned as a media event by the Sri Rama Sene has revived interest in the pathetic band of lumpens who claim to be upholding Hindu honour. The attack, particularly the roughing up of young women who were in the pub, has been equated with the moral policing of the Pakistani Taliban in the Swat Valley. With a general election round the corner, it has given a convenient handle to those opposed to the BJP. The BJP Govt of Karnataka and the RSS parivar has been charged with complicity and been held responsible for nurturing the hoodlums. (IE)