The sad thing about fights nowadays is that it never is about how high the opponents can reach but how low they can fall.

The more than a decade long battle between Hyderabad’s very own Deccan Chronicle and the Hyderabad edition of the famed Times of India has been excruciating, extended and quite awkward. TOI which in Bengaluru managed to shake Deccan Herald off its throne only by outlasting a family and its many squabbles, has found Hyderabad a tough turf almost from Day One.

One of the better known facts was that TOI had near-on endless finance. And that DC in those days was slightly more stable than a Mom & Pop Store. But when DC went Public and DCHL was born, the equations changed. Both were cash rich. Both were Ruthless. Both were Savvy. Both were Committed.

The way their battle was being perceived, and the way it was stretching out indicated that the people had quite honestly lost interest in the quarrel. But when DC Management hit what is popularly known as a Self Goal, people perked up once more.

Suddenly the focus shifted to whether there would be an edition of the paper the next day in the case of DC, and whether there would be any news in the next day’s paper in the specific case of the Times of India which in all fairness took “Sold Out” to a whole new level.

Deccan Chronicle has always been famous for an enlarged and ambitious, even arrogant vision. So people were expecting a retaliation with broad targets and sweeping results. But what it seems to have come up with is a mere strategy of street smart.

But is this too little? Too late? And in media sensitized economies, will the trick work? In the peculiar case of ‘Who blinks first’ has DC got the facts mixed up?

Because the strategy is brilliant. It has the Magnanimity of a King. And is a conniving move befitting a Chanakya.

Release an ad, a classified ad in Deccan Chronicle and you get the same ad FREE in the Times of India. That is the special scheme. That is the Festival Offer.

But damn…has it backfired? People are suddenly accusing Times of India of lifting classified ads from the Deccan Chronicle and publishing them without any shame…without any cost.

In this suddenly enraged environment I have just one question. The Times has no problem with lifting content from DC and even acknowledging it in print. The DC should have no problem as long as it’s being given the credit. The customer has no problem since his classified ad now has more of a reach.

So what’s the fight about?

Indeed, am I right in assuming that there is no fight left after all? And are these petty skirmishes puppy like in their intensity. More of an instinctive, habitual knee jerk. Fighting for the sake of fighting?

Because the fight is long over. The fight that never was…