Why are we a country of such short fuses? Narayana Murthy faced a case when he cancelled the singing of the national anthem and settled for a musical score, thus bruising the feelings of the Kannada Rakshna Vekeelara Vedeka. The petitioner in Sania’s national flag case, Prakash Singh Thakur, is in fact, serially offended — he has filed several cases of contempt against those who defile national pride, including Sachin Tendulkar. Who set these people up as arbiters of decorum? In the culture wars, the sanctimonious somehow always manage to make things difficult for the liberal, no matter how small their numbers. Taking offence is one of the easiest things in the world. Being Sania Mirza or M.F. Husain means a lifetime of dedicated effort and excellence. A few extreme voices should not be allowed to drive a wedge between these public figures and their sense of worth in India.

As our columnist points out, pressure is always part of international sport and for the sake of every little girl who hopes to grow up to be Sania Mirza, she shouldn’t give in so easily. But it’s understandable if she’s tired of apologising, retracting and qualifying everything, and just wants to concentrate on her tennis alone. Some time back, she could not play with Shahar Pe’er of Israel, for fear of a backlash back home. And with this turn of events, she has less to lose than her country.