NEW DELHI, Dec 26: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s patriotic fervour is beyond reproach, but his call to Indians in his birthday message on Tuesday to be prepared to die for their country has left many parents and their children seriously worried, forcing a large number of them to come out in a rally against what they describe as nuclear madness of Islamabad and New Delhi.

“We elected him to protect us from the terrorism of terrorists, of hunger, of poverty, but now he is terrifying all of us with this call to patriotism, as though the only way to be patriotic is by becoming hysterical,” said Shantunu Vidyarthi, a 10-year-old student who joined the impromptu rally.

In a speech at a gathering of children and other well-wishers who greeted Vajpayee on his 77th birthday at his residence, the premier said India wanted to live in peace with all its neighbours.

But in another address later in the day, he added: “We do not want war, but it is being foisted on us and we are prepared to meet the challenge.”

What seems to have worried the children, who came from slums and public schools, was Vajpayee’s melancholic sagacity. “We greet each other often with the wish that may you live for a hundred years. But what use is living that long if you are not productive. No point lying on a cot and coughing through your life which could get your most loving relatives also to become quite fed up.”

Then he declared: “We should live a full life, a hearty life. When needed we should live for the country, when required we should be ready to die for the country.” Many Indians are beginning to look at the call to martyrdom as less distant and remote, and less rhetorical than on previous occasions of standoff with neighbours.