‘Saluting our martyrs not enough’

Bengaluru: Twenty years have passed since India's victory in Kargil but the shadow of war still looms large. There were an estimated 800 terrorist cells operating in 2008, according to a statement made by former NSA M.K. Narayanan in August that year, shortly before 26/11. The South Asian Terror Portal shows 942 Naxal attacks in India between 2014 and 2019.

Kargil war veteran, Major Rakesh Sharma, disagrees with defence analysts who opine that lessons were learned from 1999. "To brush the issue off with the narrative that Kargil cannot be clubbed with 26/11 or Uri is naive and silly," he told Deccan Chronicle, Kargil was won, he says, due to the "grit and determination shown by young officers, but do we give them their due? What message does it send both to the public and the young serving officers”, he asks, “when veterans are thrashed at Jantar Mantar? Without the will to dissuade adversaries”, he says. "India will remain vulnerable."