The country is at war. On paper - in the budget documents - the country allocates over Rs.141,000 crore (nearly $30 billion) towards defence. Yet what is meaningfully spent is lesser and this when the military, para-military and police forces have equipment and related inventory that is veering towards block obsolescence.

Parliamentarians and senior political leaders must take the responsibility for this sorry state of affairs and embark on appropriate redress with purpose. Specific suggestions include convening a full 10-day session of both the houses that will discuss the Kargil recommendations and the GoM reports to evolve an all-party consensus for immediate action.

The Indian military is a credible and highly professional institution and when the chips are down - as they were in Kargil in 1999 - it was the young officers and their committed troops who plucked the chestnuts out of the fire. Ineptitude at the higher levels of national security management is a recurring leit motif from the 1962 war with China through Kargil to the 2008 Mumbai carnage.

Many inadequacies exist in the Indian national security apparatus despite the lessons of Kargil and this is a poor reflection on the Indian entity - both state and empowered civil society.

Parliament ought to demand that the government set up a Blue Ribbon commission that will draw the most eminent and capable national security professionals who have no political axe to grind to carry out an urgent review and outline time-bound remedial measures. And to be meaningful and not anodyne, they would have to be radical and far-reaching and not timid and tentative.

Finally, as regards the martyrs - those who died in Kargil for flag and country - and the many more who made the supreme sacrifice before 1999 and after - right into July this year - they warrant a national tribute.

This is not the time to open the arid debate about why the world's largest democracy does not have a national memorial for its 'fauj' but to make a modest suggestion.

Many Western nations who lost their young men in World War I (which incidentally includes India) mark Nov 11 as Poppy Day. A tradition has evolved wherein the common citizen lays a poppy flower on the tomb of the martyrs or pays tribute in a designated public space.

The average Indian need not wait for the state and its political representatives to decide whose war Kargil was. It was fought for India. Period.

Thus there may be a case to choose an Indian flower - why not the humble 'gainda' (marigold) - and offer it to the unknown and forgotten Indian martyr who willingly shed blood. Local communities can decide how best to remember the martyrs and their families in their midst and let them know that at least once a year.

'Your sacrifice is not forgotten'. The moment has come for 'Gainda' Day to lead the plethora of other dedicated 'days' that dot the Indian calendar.

(26-07-2009 - Uday Bhaskar is a well-known strategic analyst. He can be reached at cudayb@gmail.com)