When Maculinea rules the roost

Countless number of times I ve wondered how a quack religious saints puts an act publicly and still ppl believe him to be the incarnation of God himself, how a politician wears a mask so very openly and still ppl believe him as a true leader towards their destiny and how even after scores and scores of ignominious scandals being exposed about their own leader, do these subordinate and subservient partisans still render their relentless support to him. Little do we know that it’s the Maculinea spirit on act, the force against truth and the most unfathomable segment in the design of nature.

A butterfly of European aborigine christened as Maculinea Rebeli, in its initial phase of life called the pupa stage, which is an inactive stage of development, intermediate between larva and adulthood, produces the exact scent and mimics a similar sound that is produced by a Queen Ant to cheat an entry into the ant’s nest and the ants society at large. The worker ants treat this pupa stage caterpillar as their queen ant and provide it with all the privileges of a queen ant assuming it to be one. Not only does the Mucalinea get the food it wants but it also gets the ultra security provided by the worker ants incase of a threatening danger from other species.

Definitely a wonderful case of evolution and the Mucalinea is pretty intelligent enough not to stay in the same colony as that of the Queen Ant. Such being the case, the scientists wanted to understand and note the behavioral pattern of the worker ants incase this traitor species is exposed in front of the real queen ant. Hence the scientist placed four queen ants in a colony comprising scores of worker ants and a pupa staged Mucalina. On spotting the traitor species mimicking itself to be one of them, the queen ants started to attack it, exposing the fraudulent nature of the Mucalinea species. But showcasing a remarkable and an unbelievable tinge of foolishness coupled with blind loyalty, the worker ants form a group to defend the Mucalinea species and another to attack its own Queen Ants, killing all four of them in the process.

Now is the case above by any chance an isolated one? The spread of this Mucalinea spirit or phenomenon amongst the numerous privileged humans will be an understatement, if I say it’s anything less than epidemic. The problem is not just the presence of Mucalineas but rather the universal presence of Workers Ants amongst us, the ants who just can’t see the facts and are rather content with the myth.

For a start let me give you some facts of an organization we all know:

This organization contains a little over 500 employees and here is their profile

• 29 of them have been accused of spouse abuse
• 7 have been arrested for fraud
• 19 have more than three criminal cases against them
• 117 have been charged and are being investigated for Murder, Rape, Extortion, assault and Robbery
• 71 cannot get credit or bank loans due to bad credit history
• 21 are currently defendants on various lawsuits
• 84 have been involved in offences and have received or paid bribes.

If you are just wondering what sort of an organization this possibly can be, then please wake up because the above mentioned organization has the full fledged support of you and me.

It’s the lower house of the Indian Parliament with 545 members.

Now tell me, are you an Ant?

Comments

Anonymous said…
hi manoj,
thought provoking as usual! how are you.
are you with karvy still?
what news otherwise?
keep blogging and making me read.
bye
deepa
Anonymous said…
Hi Manoj,
First of all, great blog. And its true. Eventhough we call our EC as autonomous, it still acts as a sister concern for the govt. There are numerous pores still available. U can argue y pple cant think and stop sending the above mentioned pple, but most votes are bogus, most voting involves money, and there are many other reasons. Even APJ Abdulkalam, who was president, not politician and dint contest for the 2nd time. This wat happens wen u r surrounded by wrong politicians. And there is no alternative in politicians.. Indian Parliament is a office, Indian govt is a company and the herd follows the head.. And so awareness is the key.. I heard in one of the debates earlier on 'no candidates prefered' symbol on the voting list. But 1 EC officer told that there is a register and person unwilling to vote should ask the Election officer. As far as I am concerned, if we follow that, it doesnt become secret ballot. So this option should be added on the list and the laws of the nation should be tightened.
Anonymous said…
This must be published in news paper
vineet said…
i thnk agreeing 2 dinesh will b enuff 2 admire how beatific u have presented
Rachna said…
leme agree with u on this... for the task of disagreement is too tediuous :-)

so critical we are..so self-critical and still remain just where we were... no?


By the way u write so well...some how I didn't notice this while reading ur mid-term & end-term papers :-)

Rachana
vincentcc said…
Good Stuff Manoj

Conrad vincent

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