Two Big Cats cannot rule in the same valley. Someone’s gotta give. No prizes for guessing who beat a hasty retreat, tail between legs.

Social media is giggling like a spotted hyena after suggestions have emerged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi could not spot a single tiger during his much-publicised safari in the contiguous tiger reserves at Karnataka’s Bandipur and Tamil Nadu’s Mudumalai on Sunday.

A report in The New Indian Express newspaper on Tuesday also suggested that sections of BJP leaders and senior forest officials have sought action against the driver of Modi’s safari vehicle. But several officials of the Bandipur reserve have said the huge security entourage of the Prime Minister may have scared away tigers.

It is not clear if the BJP leaders are keen to scapegoat the driver or if they are merely making some noise to get noticed. Evidently, someone not schooled in pre-2014 history slipped up. Old India’s sycophancy lore has some anecdotes — apocryphal or otherwise — of goats or other hapless prey being strategically tethered in forests before VIP visits so that tigers could be lured for photo-ops.

On Wednesday, Congress MP Jairam Ramesh tweeted the newspaper report and wrote: “It now turns out that Shikari Shambu never got to see a tiger at Bandipur. He was angry. SPG blaming forest staff who in turn are blaming security. In all this, Bhupender Yadav is getting away lightly. Sack him I would say. Woh camera. Woh pose. All wasted!”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Bandipur Tiger Reserve in Karnataka on Sunday PTI picture

Shambu, the pith helmet-wearing hunter, is a comic character. The SPG, or the Special Protection Group, guards the Prime Minister, and Yadav is India’s environment minister. Yadav had publicly slammed the Qatari news group Al Jazeera earlier this week for a report on the displacement of forest dwellers because of conservation programmes.

Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi tweeted: “I think it’s an international conspiracy or the Opposition strategy due to which tiger sighting did not happen. Must investigate.”

Satish Acharya’s cartoon on the Molitics news website showed tigers receiving an Enforcement Directorate notice as well as a showcause notice to derecognise them as India’s national animal. This cartoon was tweeted by former BJP parliamentarian Subramanian Swamy, who said: “If this is verified news then it speaks poorly about Modi.”

Comedian Shyam Rangeela, known for mimicking Modi, released a video of himself on a jungle safari reprimanding a photographer for not taking enough pictures of him. Imitating Modi, Rangeela says: “Animals were there back then, they are still here. Back then there was no camera, now there is.”

Anti-BJP Twitter handle Rofl Gandhi 2.0 weighed in: “Even after putting on make-up and costume for three hours, sir could not see a tiger. Now they say he is angry, the poor employees will be punished. There is only one way to make him happy now, the officers should say: ‘Sir, the tiger was hiding in fear of you’.”