Ten years at the helm!

The tigress Machali’s story is legendary. She was the matriarch of Ranthambore forests when the tiger count became alarmingly low due to poaching. Born in 1997 and living until 2016, she was the oldest tigers in the world at the time of her last breath. Between 1999 to 2006, Machali had four litters and gave birth to eleven cubs – seven females and four males and was the cause of the increase of tiger population from a mere 14 to 50 in Ranthambore. She was a true fighter, and her angry fight lasted hours with a crocodile trying to steal her hunt.  Alas, age catches up, and my heart was heavier when I saw a buffalo calf tied to a tree as an offer for Machali. Her ability to hunt had declined, and her progenies challenged for turf.

You may well be wondering why I have to recall Machali, plenty of information of the tigress available on the web.

The most interestingly watched election between Mamata Banerjee and Suvendu happened yesterday, and the one who polls higher will win. Right now, the body language of the TMC leaders marching into the Election Commissioner’s office with a list of complaints, their time-tested enemy of democracy, Electronic Voting machines, seems rigged even before the counting had begun. Suvendu’s supporters are euphoric and state that his win is a foregone conclusion.

For nearly two hours Mamata was forced to sit inside a polling booth at Boyal in Nandigram. Normally, she is at home on the polling day. This day was different. There were clashes, and a win was a must. As I had written earlier, Mamata could have avoided the do-or-die situation if only her ego had not come into play and could have avoided a face-to-face fierce battle with her onetime aide Suvendu.

With a leg injury and confined to a wheelchair, Mamata could not move out of a polling booth at Boyal in Nandigram.  She seemed tired and weak, just like Machali, the famous tigress of Ranthambore. Nothing seemed to fall in place. She was fighting not only for a win but was struggling to retain her image of a fighter and tigress like Machali. I guess she might’ve introspected in her lonesomeness in the polling booth on the day, which would decide her and her party’s fate and dreams of taking on Modi and his type of politics.

In her political journey, she effortlessly made enemies of those required in case of emergency, primarily the governor and the election commissioner. No opposition party leader has asserted and challenged the might of any and everyone who came in the way, regardless of the consequences, as Mamata did. None in her party could change her decision, however bad it could be, contributing to her woes.

My humble surmise is, she came in dreaming and with high hopes, though with a negative load of shooing away the Tatas, the consequences lingering to this day. None can match her grassroots connect! Many of Mamata’s colleagues were busy getting richer and craftily promoted Didi’s clan for their gains. They wrongly convinced her that she was a PM material, and she lost her way. They badly let her down.

Machali, the tigress that lived the longest, is still talked about and shall be remembered for long!

Sampath Kumar

Intrépide Voix