Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Saturday called increasing US overtures toward Islamabad a "complete diplomatic collapse", his attack coming hours after Pakistan’s foreign minister Ishaq Dar met US secretary of state Rubio Marco in Washington.
Dar was quoted as saying that Islamabad has “no issue” with the US designating The Resistance Front (TRF) – the outfit India has blamed for the massacre of tourists in Pahalgam – as a terrorist organisation.
"We have no issue. And we welcome, if they have any evidence, that they are involved," Dar was quoted as saying at an event in Washington.
“Linking the TRF to the Lashkar-e-Taiba is wrong,” Dar added. “That outfit was dismantled years ago by Pakistan. The actors were prosecuted, arrested and jailed, and the entire outfit was destroyed. So, if it [TRF] is an independent entity...the US authorities have any evidence that they were involved [in the Pahalgam attack], we have no objection to that.”
Ramesh, Congress’s general secretary, communications, added Dar’s visit in his four-point salvo at the Narendra Modi government.
“The abject failure of Indian diplomacy, especially in the past two months, is revealed most tellingly by four facts. These expose the tall claims made by the Prime Minister and his drum-beaters and cheerleaders,” Ramesh wrote on X (formerly Twitter)
His first point was: “Since May 10, 2025, President Trump has claimed 25 times that he personally intervened to stop Operation Sindoor, threatening India and Pakistan that if they didn't bring the war to a halt, they would not have a trade agreement with the USA.”.
He added: “2. On June 10, 2025, Gen. Michael Kurilla, the head of the powerful US Central Command, hails Pakistan as a phenomenal partner of the US in countering terrorism.
“3. On June 18, 2025, President Trump held an unprecedented luncheon meeting with the Pakistan Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir in the White House. Two months earlier, Munir's inflammatory, incendiary, and communally provocative remarks had provided the backdrop to the brutal Pahalgam terror attacks on April 22, 2025.
“4. Just yesterday, July 25, 2025, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Pakistan's Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar and thanked Pakistan for its partnership in countering terrorism and preserving regional stability.”
He rounded it off with: “The PM's clean chit to China on June 19, 2020, has already cost India heavily. His much boasted friendship with President Trump is now proving to be hollow.”