The US, by branding The Resistance Front (TRF)as a global terrorist organization, has caused an earthquake in India. The magnitude of this thoughis difficult to calculate, given the continuing jolts in the media.

The bellowing on TV channels like “US Hammers Pakistan” and “US Punishes Pakistan” has raised concern that some anchor(s) may suffer heart attacks on the show.

Writeups have also appeared with a ‘we told you so’ – that the US would “bend” to India eventually. And that the diplomatic tempest unleashed by India globally on 32 countries has forced the world opinion to change in crucifying Pakistan on the altar of terrorism.

The Ministry of External Affairs has praised the US for branding TRF as Foreign Terrorist Organization and Specially Designated Global Terrorist, calling it a timely and important step In Indo-US cooperation.

There is speculation in the media of a big announcement (s) in the upcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament. These estimations are wide-ranging - a) that President Draupadi Murmu acknowledging India’s diplomatic success with the US regarding the April 22 Pahalgam massacre in her address to Parliament may announce the Bharat Ratna award for Prime Minister Narendra Modi;

b) that Foreign Minister S Jaishankar will be awarded a Padmashree in recognition of his diplomatic victory over the US;

c) that after President Murmu’s term ends the country will adopt the One Nation One Election (ONOE) formula and change over to a presidential form of government headed by President Narendra Modi;

d) that the impeachment of Justice Yashwant Varma in the cash-at-home case may reveal some skeletons.

And e) that PM Modi may be conferred the George Cross (Britain’s Highest Civilian Award) for displaying unprecedented resoluteness faced with Pakistani terrorism, during his upcoming visit to the UK.

All this, while US President Donald Trump said for the umpteenth time (this time at a White House dinner for Republican senators) that India and Pakistan were at war, planes were being shot, five jets were shot down, it was getting worse and worse, these are two serious nuclear countries, we solved it telling them “You guys want to make a trade deal. We're not making a trade deal if you're going to be throwing around weapons and maybe nuclear weapons” (https://x.com/PTI_News/status/1946427803643290079).

The view of an American scholar, who was earlier with Rand Corporation, is that the Trump Administration has labelled TRF a terrorist organization, but doesn’t “clearly” say TRF is part of LeT, which is ALSO part of Pakistani ISI’s terrorist proxy network (https://x.com/DerekJGrossman/status/1946247631304270197?t=uVnqjBawAmzPDUVtXzqHlg&s=03).

His claim that the Trump Administration didn’t “clearly” state that the TRF is part of the LeT and hence may be taken with a pinch of salt. But he is absolutely right that the US statement doesn’t mention that LeT is part of ISI’s proxy terrorist network.

The US has stated earlier that the perpetrators of the Pahalgam massacre must be brought to justice but has never ever, including now, blamed Pakistan for the Pahalgam massacre – and will never do so.

With TRF twice claiming responsibility for the Pahalgam massacre, the US has thrown a bone to India in the form of branding TRF a terrorist organization, which we savor on imaginary juice. So, what are the celebrations about? The US designated LeT and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) as foreign terrorist organizations way back in December 2001 (https://www.state.gov/foreign-terrorist-organizations) but has never taken action to eliminate these terrorist leaders for very obvious reasons.

We fail to recognize the strong CIA-MI6-ISI nexus. Why do we fail to acknowledge that the Pahalgam massacre executed by Pakistan was greenlighted by the CIA or at least the CIA was aware of it. Besides, wasn’t lifting the security cover in Pahalgam facilitated by the enemy within (https://www.thecitizen.in/opinion/templating-conflict-1163032)?

CIA is not like Indian intelligence which had no idea Pakistan’s Nur Khan air base was under US control, US nukes are stored in Pakistan and Muridke was vacated before Op ‘Sindoor’ was launched.

To plan the terrorist attacks in Reasi (2024) and the Pahalgam massacre in April 2025, Pakistan obtained satellite imagery from the US-based Maxar Technologies, partnered by a Pakistani-American who was earlier charged for exporting dual-use technology to Pakistan.

There was a rush of imagery demands of Pahalgam and the surrounding areas, preceding the Pahalgam massacre. This was immediately after Pakistan blamed India for the hijacking of the Jaffar Express by the Baloch Liberation Army on March 11, 2025 in which all Pakistani army personnel on board were killed.

Are we so dumb to think the CIA had no idea of what Pakistan was planning? But then who has the guts to point a finger at the US when all blame for providing intelligence to Pakistan can “solely” be placed on China?

Do we think that US President Donald Trump’s bonhomie with Pakistan army chief Asim Munir is only because Pakistan signed a crypto deal with a US firm that benefits Trump’s family. And because Munir has offered minerals of Balochistan to Trump. Surely there is more to it?

Shouldn’t we examine why the UK, a warmongering partner of Washington, is secretly relocating thousands of Afghans to Britain. How many will be trained as mercenaries and where will they be deployed under American tutelage are questions that are still to be answered.

India will not make any statement of how many aircraft it lost in Op ‘Sindoor’, even if Trump repeats what he has been saying when he attends the Quad Summit in India coming September. There are calls for doing the stocktaking for Op ‘Sindoor’, including a former CNS and Chairman COSC recommending this should not be delayed (https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/after-operation-sindoor-dont-delay-the-stocktaking-10102906/).

But this is unlikely because the operation is “paused” not “completed”. Besides, why disturb the “win-win” situation. The Indo-US trade deal will also be painted as “win-win” irrespective of what tariffs Trump imposes.

Globally, Israel wants to occupy southern Syria and the west is preparing for full-scale war on Russia. Kaja Kallas, Estonian prime minister and EU's foreign policy chief says Russia should be broken into small pieces.

(https://www.reddit.com/r/YUROP/comments/1cvq3gn/estonian_prime_minister_kaja_kallas_said_that_the/).

Estonia was under German occupation both in World War I and World War II. Kaja is perhaps part of the neo-Nazi progeny, who hopes to avenge Russia parading 60,000 German POWs through Moscow’s in July 1944 (https://x.com/BowesChay/status/1946286468814541044?t=1x1zukmE_Z9d537frcnmWg&s=08).

Lt General Prakash Katoch is an Indian Army veteran. Views expressed here are the writer’s own.

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Lt General PRAKASH KATOCH