We all know the fable about the shepherd boy.

He rushes into town shouting that wolves are attacking his sheep. The villagers drop their work, run to help, and find they have been fooled. He does it again. Same drama. Same deception. Then comes the day a real wolf attacks. The boy screams. The sheep scatter. But nobody comes.

Why?

Because trust had died before the sheep did.

As I heard the Prime Minister address the nation after the Women’s Reservation Bill was defeated, that old fable came back to me.

Because the opposition was not rejecting women’s representation. They were objecting to what many saw hidden behind it, the delimitation issue tucked inside like a Trojan horse.

And when a Trojan horse is spotted, should one go to the nation sounding wounded, as though some noble effort has been betrayed? Or should one smile, admit the move was detected, and move on?

That is where the shepherd boy comes in.

If people feel they are being outwitted too often, if grand gestures are repeatedly wrapped around political calculation, then even sincere appeals begin to sound theatrical.

And that is dangerous.

Because leadership runs not on speeches but on credibility.

I sometimes think politics resembles those old medicine sellers on railway platforms. “This tonic cures everything!” they shout.

They say it once, people gather. They say it ten times, people drift away. By the twentieth bottle, even if it really works, nobody buys.

The same with leaders. Cry wolf too often, and when the wolf really comes, nobody stirs.

And there will be real wolves.

National crises.

Security threats.

Moments when a leader genuinely needs a people united behind him.

But unity cannot be switched on like election lights. It is built through trust. And trust comes when people feel they are not being fooled for votes. Yes, that speech was meant especially for the women of West Bengal, just before they went to vote.

What amused me was the wounded tone after the bill was blocked. As though the nation had missed some grand act of generosity.

But the nation is not so naive. The ordinary citizen may not use phrases like constitutional strategy or Trojan horse politics, but he senses when a horse is carrying more than cavalry. Usually before it enters the gate.

And perhaps that is why the shepherd boy story survives. Because it is not really about wolves.

It is about what happens when credibility is spent too cheaply.

A leader must be believed when he speaks. Not merely applauded. Because applause can be manufactured. And is, at the moment.

Belief cannot.

And if one keeps crying wolf for political effect, then one day, in some real national emergency, when a rallying call is genuinely needed, the people may fold their arms and say, “There he goes again.”

And my prayer is that that doesn’t happen when the wolf is already at the door…!

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