New Delhi, Jan. 12: BJP president L.K. Advani has pleaded with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to ensure that the word ?Sindh? is retained in the national anthem ?since it is a sacred inheritance bequeathed to Independent India by our freedom struggle?.

In a letter dated January 11, Advani expressed the BJP?s ?deep concern and anguish at a needless controversy? created by a public interest litigation filed in the Supreme Court seeking deletion of the word ?Sindh? on the grounds that the region is no longer part of India.

Advani, who was born and raised in Sindh before migrating to Gujarat after Partition, called the PIL ?fundamentally flawed, to the point of being frivolous?. It also had the potential to ?generate pulls and pressures by narrow-minded forces that can seriously undermine India?s unity and integrity?.

The apex court has directed the Centre to give its response to the plea.

The leader of the Opposition said the PIL was ?completely ignorant of the civilisational salience of ?Sindh? for not only the India of the past but also the India of the present and the future?.

Advani said: ?The very name and identity of the Indus civilisation, the oldest civilisation in the world and the mother of India?s civilisational heritage, is derived from ?Sindh?.?

Although the BJP is normally dismissive of Jawaharlal Nehru?s ?western-centric? ideas and world-view, Advani invoked lines from Nehru?s Discovery of India to underline his point. ?The word Hindu is clearly derived from Sindhu, the old as well as the present Indian name for the Indus. From this Sindhu came the words Hindu and Hindustan as well as Indus and India.?

There was more of Nehru in Advani?s missive. He mentioned that when some members objected to continuing with the word ?Sindh? after Jana Gana Mana was adopted as the national anthem by the Constituent Assembly in 1950, Nehru defended its inclusion.

Advani stated that ?Sindh? was not just a geographical entity but ?very much part of the imperishable idea of India?.