Weekend Reads:

  1. There are two reasons why a government does not come clean on something, writes Shekhar Gupta in the Print. Either it is hiding something or it is too arrogant to answer. The Rafale case may still need evidence to prove the former but, “the second conclusion is now clear beyond doubt”.
  2. “If anti-corruption can bolster the ruling party’s unity, it can also consolidate the support of opponents. This is particularly true of leaders who have a genuine mass base. While Banerjee may herself overreach, the BJP managed to convert her into a national symbol of resistance against the tyranny of the Centre,” writes Pratap Bhanu Mehta in the Indian Express.
  3. Apurva Vishwanath argues in the Wire that the government’s decision to legally attack Prashant Bhushan simply re-iterates its aim of being as opaque to its citizens as possible.
  4. Naezy and DIVINE, whose lives inspired the upcoming Ranveer Singh movie Gully Boy, about rappers in Mumbai, get the profile treatment from Bhanuj Kappal in Mint.
  5. “The old question begs an answer: Should you give a man fish, or teach him how to fish? Lurking hidden in the new bout of welfarism seems to be an admission that the state can’t deliver for the poor anything other than cash,” writes TN Ninan in the Business Standard.
  6. Arpita Chakrabarty in the Hindu introduces you to the Odia bhadis who are part of Kolkata’s invisible water distribution system.
  7. Tridip Suhrud in Mint writes about the impact Mohandas Gandhi had on Gujarat’s aesthetic and its understanding of public space, and how much of that is forgotten.
  8. Not all protests get media coverage in Pakistan, for very deliberate reasons that M Ilyas Khan examines in a report for the BBC.
  9. “Chief Kent illustrates an unspoken truth: that for many years women have been doing military jobs as dangerous, secretive and specialized as anything men do.” Richard A Oppel writes an obituary in the New York Times of a woman who was a member of America’s top-tier Special Operations forces.
  10. Ian Parker in the New Yorker tells us the fascinating, incredibly twisted story of the life of novelist Dan Mallory.