"Could be either party," he said. "Could be a journalist who figured it out independently from the court records — the order was public. Could be a political operation from outside both parties who benefits from the chaos." He paused. "I don't think it was my team. I told Rajesh before we came here that the press situation needed to be managed quietly. He understood."
"Faiza understood the same thing," she said. "I'm not assuming either of our teams did this."
"Which leaves the court record or an independent operative," he said. "In either case the damage is the same." He looked at her. "How are you planning to handle it?"
"Factual statement," she said. "Court order, specific legal basis, nothing to hide, the voters of Lucknow North deserve to know their candidate is focused on the campaign rather than a property dispute. No apologies, no drama, no feeding the frame." She paused. "You?"
"The same," he said. He paused. "We should coordinate the statements."
She looked at him. "If we coordinate the statements it looks like we're managing a joint narrative."
"If we give conflicting statements it looks like there's something to conflict about," he said. "The only way to kill this story is to make it boring. A coordinated, factual, consistent response from both candidates that says: this is a property dispute and a court order and there is nothing else to say — that kills the story faster than anything else."
He was right. She knew he was right the moment he said it. She did not enjoy knowing this. "Fine," she said. "Draft yours. I'll draft mine. We compare in twenty minutes."
They drafted separately — she at one end of the table, he at the other, both typing on their phones. They compared. Their statements were, without having discussed the content, approximately seventy percent identical in framing and a hundred percent identical in factual emphasis. The consistency that produced was genuine, not manufactured, which was actually the best possible demonstration that the story had no subtext.
"There's one more thing," he said. He looked at his coffee cup. "The line in the article. The 'roommates by night' implication."
"I'm not dignifying that with a response," she said.
"No," he agreed. "But our teams need to be specifically briefed. No comments that could be interpreted as either confirming or engaging with that framing. Any staffer who talks to media about the flat situation goes through you or me first."
"Done," she said. "Tell Rajesh. I'll tell Faiza."
