Patriotism occasionally makes the most lucid mind act in the most peculiar of ways. Or to put it another way, the most irrational acts are often garbed in the banner of patriotism to make them acceptable.

What, for instance, are we to make of the recent public interest litigation petitioning the Supreme Court of India to delete Sindh from the Indian national anthem? The petitioner has argued that as Sindh is no longer a part of the Indian Union, its inclusion in the anthem is against the public interest.

That an individual with a lot of time on his hands could genuinely believe that the public interest is in any way affected by the absence or presence of Sindh in the national anthem is for a psychologist to decide.

But that the Indian Supreme Court, with its huge backlog of pending cases could then issue a notice to the union government, asking for its version, is beyond comprehension and belief.

Understandably, the newspapers have been flooded with letters for and against the change demanded by the petitioner. For instance, Jashan Bhatia of Kochi, Kerala writes to the editor of The Hindu: "The Sindhis have already suffered by losing their homeland at the time of Independence.

As one of the millions of Sindhis scattered all over the country with no cultural or language moorings, my heart warms up every time I come across the word, Sindhu..."

Apart from hurting Indian sensibilities, the petitioner has also argued that the inclusion of Sindh in the national anthem also constitutes an infringement of Pakistani sovereignty over its province of Sindh.

Really? Nobody to my knowledge has even thought about the matter since Partition. Now, no doubt, several patriotic Pakistanis will wake up to this "infringement" of their sovereignty, and press the government to demand that the Indian government delete the offending word from its anthem.

The Hindu, perhaps India's best daily newspaper, put the whole unnecessary controversy in context. In its issue of January 10, its editorial writer points out that the Jana Gana Mana was written by Rabindranath Tagore, India's Nobel-laureate, in 1911.

The editorial goes on to state: "...the challenge suffers from a basic flaw. It fails to appreciate that national anthems are, and must be, regarded as hymns and songs that express patriotic sentiments and not as factual documents that are subject to literal interpretation... Such expressions of a particular socio-historical context should not be expected to be wound up like a clock to keep time!"

Years ago, there was a controversy in Pakistan over the shape of the crescent on our flag. A school of thought held that the current design showed the waning moon, and suggested that it be changed to show the waxing moon.

When an adviser approached Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, then prime minister, and proposed that he consider ordering the flag to be changed, Bhutto is reported to have exclaimed: "The flag is something nobody can accuse me of having designed! Just let it be!"

Any day now, I am positive, our religious parties will mount a legal challenge to force the government to include the "religion" entry in the new machine-readable passports being introduced.

Never mind that such a provision does not exist in most other countries, and their equipment is not geared to read this entry. But our good maulanas are convinced that the absence of this provision will spell doom for the country and somehow, the faith of its citizens will be weakened.

Having been hand and glove with President Pervez Musharaf all along, and rubber-stamped his desire for five more years, the MMA is now casting around for a stick to beat him with. If the passport issue is the best they have been able to come up with, then the general is fortunate in his opposition.

Our mullahs clearly have a lot of time on their hands as every now and then, they come up with some pretty bizarre objections to the most ordinary things. For instance, some years ago, a group of them objected to Pakistan Television's coverage of cricket in which bowlers rubbed the ball on their thighs to retain its shine.

According to these critics, this sight was embarrassing to them when they watched matches with their wives and daughters. But it's not just our religious men who have a peculiar notion of the human body.

During Zia's days, a member of his Majlis-i-Shura demanded on the floor of the assembly that PTV be restrained from showing women's tennis as the players were too scantily clad to be decent. And if memory serves, women's tennis went off the air as long as Zia was around.

Coming to the courts and their propensity to drop all important cases, forget about their huge backlogs, and take up the most trivial matter, I am reminded of one particularly batty reference before our higher judiciary during Benazir Bhutto's second stint.

One gentleman objected to the government's choice of high commissioner to the UK, declaring in his petition that he was far more qualified to represent Pakistan at the Court of St James.

Instead of rejecting the petition out of hand, the views of the foreign office were demanded and arguments heard before the decision that the government indeed had the powers to appoint envoys to foreign countries.

If there was more discernment about the cases, perhaps people would be less likely to take the most frivolous of matters before the court. And thus, maybe serious litigants would not have to wait for years for a decision.

The Hindu's editorial cited above concludes by saying: "Anyone in India who believes that rewriting Jana Gana Mana will promote the national interest or, for that matter, truth telling, is living in an Alice-in-Wonderland world." I have always suspected that a large number of Pakistanis are citizens of exactly that world, and wish they would stay there for good.