Who can differ, who can afford to be anti-national at a time when the nation is at war? Be prepared for the parade of more issues. It may very well be the bus. What did the bus achieve? Our Prime Minister was conned. He was taken for a ride by the vicious enemy. In retrospect, a spectacle of humiliation. Cancel the bloody bus. Such murmurs are already in the air. Or, it may be the flights. Or trade. Or visas. And not surprisingly, Bal Thackeray has asked Dilip Kumar to return that award given him by Nawaz Sharif last year: Nishan-e-Pakistan. How can the thespian remain Indian with an award like that? So Thackeray: Please prove your national loyalty. Do we need this, this manufactured patriotism, thisobligatory nationalism? No, we don't. It may be very nation-friendly to activate the enemy-feeling by identifying safe issues and causes. It is also very tempting because you rarely get a chance to express your national credentials. After all, what is nationalism in the time of peace?

It is the demonisation of the demon. Those who are eager to pass the national test are actually shopping in the paranoia market. India, democratically developed and nationally confident, can easily do without this voluntary service of patriotism. India doesn't have to Pakistanise its national expression. For, across the border, desperation and paranoia are jostling for space in the realm of certain defeat, military as well as diplomatic. India is winning it, not only on the snowpeaks. But in the international capitals as well. That is because, democratically and culturally, India is a modern nation state, currently waging a defensive war against a democratically underdeveloped, militarily reckless neighbour. This war has thenation's fulsome endorsement. Slowly and steadily, this war is reaching its logical conclusion, without the aid of frenzy and mobilisation. Still, the new Joneses of India are busy digging out issues. Don't listen to them.