Indian mainstream media made it to the Guinness Book of World Records, when on Friday, its favourite headline “Major blow to Modi” entered the books for being the most-repeated headline in the history of media across the world.

The headline beat a long-list of oft-repeated headlines from all parts of the world, such as “Many killed in shootout at USA”, “Bomb blast in Pakistan: scores dead, hundreds injured”, “Sachin Tendulkar slams ton, leads India to victory”, “Sania Mirza crashes out in first round”, “Girl sexually abused in Delhi”, “Awesome Aussies win again”, “Messi strikes again”, “Glory! Glory! Manchester United”, “Michael Schumacher grabs pole position”, “Rift in Team Anna?” etc.

Statistics reveal that the ‘Major blow to Modi’ headline and all its associated varaiants such as “Major setback for Narendra Modi govt”, “Big blow to Modi”, have racked up a staggering 42000 mentions in print and television media over the last decade. A distant second is the headline on Sachin Tendulkar slamming a century, making the news for a little over 10000 times.

Elaborating on the calculations, Craig Glenday, the editor-in-chief of the Guinness Book of World records, said, “The headline and its variants have been mentioned by at least 2 news channels, 4 times a day, every single day, from 2002 up till now.

Number of days elapsed: 307*1 (in 2002) + 365*7 + 366*2 (taking leap years into account: 2004, 2008) + 241*1 (2012) = 3835

Number of times mentioned per day: 4

Number of news channels mentioning this everyday : 2

Number of mentions in print media + Number of electronic mentions by other Indian news channels + Official postings on social media by all Indian news channels + Number of times the same headline has been used against Lalit Modi: 7485

Grand Total: 42000

“I’d like to extend my hearty congratulations to the Indian news media for this stellar achievement. Well done, fellows! As for whoever this Modi guy is, I have to say, your media absolutely adores you!” added Glenday.

Back in India, Justice Markandey Katju, Chairman of the Press Council of India, had his own bit of advice to give to all forms of media, “I advise the print media to start a dedicated daily column titled ‘Blow to Modi’, so that all the related coverage can go in there. Electronic media could perhaps schedule a dedicated talk show by the same name, during prime-time. As for the social media, I’d suggest that news agencies take over the existing ‘Blow to Modi’ Facebook pages and Twitter handles and use them for their purpose.”

Meanwhile, Indian media celebrated this unique recognition by flashing, printing and tweeting the headline, “Breaking: Major blow to Modi as ‘Major blow to Modi’ enters Guinness Book of Records”.