Sharing the headlines

On Friday, even as senior leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) tried hard to bring BJP patriarch Lal Krishna Advani on board, the media managers of the party had other worries. They wondered whether the announcement of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as the party's prime ministerial candidate would get downplayed, as the same day a Delhi court was to deliver a verdict in the December 16 gang-rape case. Some of these managers even suggested delaying the announcement by a day, to ensure the announcement got a grand display. Notwithstanding their concern, the announcement came and an elated Modi shared space in the morning papers with the news of the conviction of the four men guilty of rape.