Above the Fold: Top stories of the day
1. The World Press Freedom Index put India at 136 out of the list of 180 countries, while also placing it on a special list of impunity where those who attack journalists tend to get away easily.
2. Bharatiya Janata Party legislators kicked and punched a fellow lawmaker in the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly on Thursday for serving beef at a private party.
3. The Indian Air Force announced that women will soon be allowed to fly fighter jets, marking the first induction of women into combat roles anywhere in the military.

The Big Story: Don't listen to me
A week after the incident – seven days that were filled with members of his party continuing to the stir the pot and some belated pushback from the government – the prime minister finally spoke on the Dadri lynching. And, rather than condemning the incident or telling off his partymen, Modi put the onus on the people: "People should ignore controversial statements made by politicians, as they are doing so for political gains."

That's more than a little ironic, if only because Modi himself has been accused of leaning heavily on beef politics in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. In his speech, given at a political rally in Bihar, Modi repeated his familiar point about Hindus and Muslims not needing to fight each other and instead calling on them to band together to take on poverty. Modi also referred to the words of President Pranab Mukherjee, who a day earlier had said that India survives because of its diversity.

At a rally on the same day, however, Modi again used beef to make a political point, suggesting that anyone who said Yadavs ate beef was abusing the community. Going by the prime minister's own advice, the people of Bihar ought not to pay attention to these comments or others from the Bharatiya Janata Party's trigger-happy cadres who have been happily bellicose over the beef issue, in the Jammu & Kashmir assembly and in Dadri itself.

The Big Scroll: Scroll.in on the day's biggest story
Ipsita Chakravarty writes that Modi has given in to a "microscopic minority" and referred to the Dadri lynching at a Bihar rally. Shoaib Daniyal explains Modi helped spread anti-beef hysteria in the first place. And Girish Shahane asks whatever created the impression that the prime minister was a moderate?

Politicking & Policying
1. Bihar watch: Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav of "abusing" the Yadav community by making reference to what they eat, after Lalu Yadav had said that they too eat beef.
2. More Bihar watch: Two new polls have turned the tide somewhat in Bihar, suggesting that the "Grand Alliance" will win enough seats for a simple majority. Until now, most predicted a victory for the National Democratic Alliance.
3. Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav has claimed that those who were behind the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots were involved in the Dadri lynching as well.
4. With supplies from India having dried up because of an informal blockade at the border, Nepal has moved to airlift urgent supplies of fuel from other countries.

Punditry
1. Nagraj Adve in the Hindu explains the impact of species, like India's fish, moving north because of climate change, disrupting entire ecosystems in the process.
2. Mukesh Ambani's return to the telecom industry will mean lots of fireworks, especially over interpretation of rules and regulations, writes Bhupesh Bhandari in the Business Standard.
3. Pratap Bhanu Mehta in the Indian Express says New Delhi has to ensure it doesn't become a "misleading power" by failing to adequately consider developments like the momentous Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement.

Don't Miss
Ajaz Ashraf explains how cow protection laws could see India hurtling down Pakistan's path of blasphemy edicts.
Just as the easy availability of guns in the United States has led to ghastly killing sprees, the laws protecting religious sensitivities in India and Pakistan are scripting tragic deaths. Indeed, the cow-protection laws in India are fast becoming the symbol of inhumanity and injustice, just as blasphemy laws are in Pakistan – a tool for harassing minorities and oppressed Hindu groups, and for playing dangerous political games.