Blue-and-White Blues: Bengal and Messi’s Fall
By Valmiki
The joke in West Bengal right now is that 2026 just isn’t the year for anything Blue-n-White. Both teams had the same jersey and both lost the plot : the pre-split Trinamool Congress and Argentina. Mamata lost her crown in May and subsequently everything, while Messi lost the Fifa World Cup early on Monday morning. Millions of Leo Messi’s fans wept and most couldn’t sleep rest of the night. In the dying seconds of the match with Messi managing to uncoil for one last stab at the goal, there were still so many of his believers who kept hoping that the Dumbledore of football would see his country through with one last flourish of that famous left foot. On May 4 when leads and results for West Bengal’s 293 assembly seats were getting announced indicating the annihilation of the Trinamool Congress, there were similar countless party diehards who kept hoping till the very end that Mamata’s “Avada Kedavra” curse would still be able to destroy BJP.
Where the two scenes drifted aeons apart was after the loss. Messi’s upbringing, education, manners and quintessential sportsman spirit stood out even in the backdrop of the Spanish celebrations. Every heart went out to the man in Number 10 struggling to keep his face straight till he received the medallion. Once that was done, he walked quite a few paces from the podium, staring at the Argentine supporters in the stand, his look vacant, his face crimson as he sobbed uncontrollably while trying to keep his tears back. Messi never looked so lonely in a long, long time. The great man was just perhaps trying to tell his innumerable fans “I’m sorry, I failed you”. You could pretty well make that out. The ageing icon may have not been able to win the fourth World Cup for his country, the pain must have been unbearable that moment, but before the world he proved once more why he is such a legend. Every heart bled with him and for him.
Mamata’s was just the polar opposite. Her education, or the utter lack of it, had made her first blurt out defiantly : “We have not lost”. And then she not only continued to stick to that but also refused to go to the governor to tender her resignation. Her sidekicks, usually terrified of her, refused to accept defeat too. A comprehensive unsportsmanlike indecent statement that smacked of utter bad taste. What happened as a result ? She was suitably outmaneuvered and the new Bengal government got sworn in on May 9. And what did her lackeys do? An overwhelming majority crossed the floor to join the breakaway faction, leaving Mamata with just a mere handful of MLAs, most of whom she cannot perhaps trust completely anymore.
Education, it has always been said, begins at home. Whoever was in charge of that in Mamata’s household perhaps never taught her the meaning and importance of a single word : “Sorry”. Nobody taught her that defeat also can be handled with grace, calmly and with dignity, that it is okay to lose sometimes, that nobody loves an individual who makes a complete nuiscance of herself in public domain when the chips are down. One has no idea whether she stayed up at night to watch the World Cup final, but if she did, she should take a lesson from the legend who didnt scream or go against the referee’s decision, didn’t cry foul. He accepted the result. Even at 39 years, Messi has exhibited qualities that Mamata hasn’t yet been able to master at 71 years. So all the best to Leo Messi, the quintessential gentleman, even in defeat.
(The author is a writer)
