The Latest: Top stories of the day
1. The Bharatiya Janata Party has expelled the Yuva Morcha leader who offered a reward for cutting off Kanhaiya Kumar's tongue.
2. The Centre has reportedly found $3 billion of defence funds lying unused in an account in the United States.
3. The Madras High Court makes the national anthem mandatory in private schools.
4. The Centre creates a new "white category", which includes 36 types of non-polluting industries that won't need environmental clearance.
5. Addressing the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha in Vrindavan, BJP president Amit Shah said "attempts are being made to term anti-national slogans as freedom of speech".
Weekend reads
1. In the Hindu, Aruna Roy and Nikhil Dey on how the ruling party wants to establish that criticisism the government is to be defined as anti-national, and that it's not only individuals, but also the Constitution that's under attack.
2. In the Indian Express, Rakesh Sinha on how the secularist discourse on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh fails to understand or engage with its ideology.
3. In Mint, Tadit Kundu on how the Employees' Provident Fund tax has created too much controversy for too little revenue.
4. In the Guardian, Emma Brockes on why ironic racism is not funny anymore.
5. In the New Yorker, Anthony Lane on remembering Henry James 100 years after his death.
6. In the New York Times, Andrew Pollack on how a biotechnology company hopes to stop the spread of the Zika virus through genetically engineered mosquitoes.
7. Also in the Hindu, Meera Srinivasan interviews sociologist Vivek Chibber on reservation and the Dalit movement.
8. In the Telegraph, Ramachandra Guha on the wavering fortunes of Karnataka.
9. In the Independent, Adam Sherwin reports that the mysterious street artist, Banksy, may have been unmasked by a team of scientists at Queen Mary University in London.
10. In the Hindu BLInk, Saurabh Yadav reports on the toxic ship-breaking yards of Alang.
