Long long ago, Singham, the Lion King ruled the vast lands of Mahabharatam. The king, like his powerful ancestors, had brought prosperity to his kingdom by a firm rule, care for the subjects and some substantial help from other worthies, the powerful elephant, the wise owl, the ever careful crow, the industrious bull and many others.
King’s general, the elephant, kept invaders at bay and would stamp out any trouble makers. Wise Owl, the Prime Minister, advised the king on worldly matters and administration. The crow kept an eye on royal treasury. The bull kept the granaries full. And so many others helped with functions they could do well.
However, things had been changing lately. Firstly, there was an unprecedented population increase, and many upstarts like talking tortoises and musical donkeys would spread canards about almost everything. And then, there was this new thing called Democracy being mentioned.
At first, it was some articulate monkeys that started suggesting a thing called elections. They said in the adjacent kingdoms, their relatives, the humans, are progressing just because of democratic system that bestows equality on all denizens. Soon, it was a clamor by the bears and deer that the king should be chosen and not be assumed because of ancestry.
The Lion King heard the commotion, and having understood nothing much of the topics being discussed; and being at heart the well-wisher of the subjects of the kingdom, grunted the agreement to let the King be chosen by election.
By consensus of the chatterers, Chaalbaz, the monkey was put up as the candidate against the Lion King.
The King addressed the populace as a flag bearer of a long line of able kings, who had brought prosperity and good order to the general populace.
Chaalbaz, in comparison, made many strange promises,
- All denizens will have equal rights and no one will be unduly suppressed by the more powerful.
- No hunting allowed. The lions and tigers eat grass. The deer and cows can graze happily hereafter.
- ‘Dens for lions only and open sky for grass eaters’ policy scrapped. There will be allotment of dens in alphabetic order.
- All royal treasuries will be distributed amongst all. Poor animals will be given Kings Grant and special privileges to come out of poverty.
To the Lion King’s dismay, Chaalbaz the monkey was elected King in the ensuing elections, as the large number of grass eaters, seeking equality, voted for him.
On assuming King’s throne, Chaalbaz decided to consolidate his position before getting down to fulfilling election promises. The new King issued the following orders,
- Singham banished to jungle. The throne and treasury occupied by monkey forces.
- The squirrels directed to collect juiciest nuts for Chaalbaz and family.
- The honey bees ordered to supply the royal monkey family half of all the honey collected.
- Deer and cows ordained to supply all vegetables and half the milk produce for monkey family.
- The Fox assigned as the new commander of military, with direct control over all elephants and horses.
And the time went on. The monkey family soon developed the royal aura of being the elected Kings, with all trappings and good things that come with unbridled power. Denizens in general were no better than earlier. If at all, they were slogging more to provide for the ever increasing demands of a fast breeding royal monkey family. Any dissent from tigers, crows, elephants and owls were quickly put down as they were not the elected representatives.
In time, the first problem manifested itself. It was a mother jackal, which had recently been blessed with two young ones. The young jackals were safe in a small cave, but now a black panther wanted to get into the cave to have young jackals for his dinner.
Mother jackal arrived panting and screaming, asking the monkey King to save her young from certain death. She begged the King that as she had voted for him, he should come to her rescue now. The monkey King comforted her, “Don’t worry. I am there”. And scratched his head and got busy with cracking the new clutch of walnuts just delivered by the royal squirrel courier.
Mother jackal was desperate, she cried “O Monkey king, do something immediately. There is no time to waste”
The monkey King put the nut cracker aside with great reluctance, got up, jumped up the royal tree, swung from a branch, scampered down, raced around a bush, gave a battle cry (trying to scare the black panther), came back and sat down on the throne.
Then with all the royal grace, he addressed the mother jackal,
“My dear loyal subject, I have done all the running around. Now rest is your fate.
After all, I have no magic wand”
Moral :
Democracy is a magic wand only as long as the king is not a monkey.
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