The third thing the state can do is likely to attract the most controversy, but it is the most logical: it should have policy of encouraging and regulating private, domestic or foreign, supply of security. Companies like PA&E, Brown and Root, Wackenhut, Executive Outcomes are Western private security companies with strong track records. Collaboration between them and Indian outfits growing in the job are eminently possible.

The demand will be there – responsible employers will want this extra layer of security. But the government has to make clear it harbours no misplaced notions about “mercenaries”. There needs to be regulation, not moral blather.

Private security companies, mostly staffed by ex-servicemen, are there to do a job and earn money. Just as Suryanaryan wanted to do in Afghanistan.

Remembering and respecting these private profit motives is the most sensible response to his death.