'Can you be more insensitive?' Ivanka Trump receives backlash on Bihar girl carrying ailing father post

Washington, May 23

US President Donald Trump’s daughter and senior White House adviser Ivanka Trump has praised 15-year-old Jyoti Kumari, who cycled down 1200 km carrying her ailing father during the nationwide lockdown in India, terming her act as a “beautiful feat of endurance and love”.

Ivanka’s post generates a huge buzz online. Tweeple aggressively commented against the tweet.

Several requested her “not to glorify poverty”, and called the tweet “insensitive”.

Stuck in Gurugram in Haryana due to the COVID-19-induced travel restrictions and lockdown, a tenacious Jyoti asked her father to sit on the rear side carrier of her cycle and took him to his native place in Bihar, covering 1200 km in seven days.

Ivanka took to Twitter on Friday to highlight the story of the Indian girl, a class eight student, whose journey has become an extensive talking point even on social media where there has been talk about whether she has it in her to pursue cycling as a career.

“15 yr old Jyoti Kumari, carried her wounded father to their home village on the back of her bicycle covering +1,200 km over 7 days.

“This beautiful feat of endurance & love has captured the imagination of the Indian people and the cycling federation!” Ivanka said in a tweet.

Ivanka, who is advisor to President Trump on job creation, has visited India twice, most recently in February this year along with her father. In 2017, she led the US delegation at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in India.

Impressed with the doggedness with which Kumari pedalled her way to Bihar from Gurugram, carrying her ailing father, the Cycling Federation of India (CFI) will invite Kumari to appear for a trial next month, in what could be a life-changing opportunity.

15 yr old Jyoti Kumari, carried her wounded father to their home village on the back of her bicycle covering +1,200 km over 7 days.

This beautiful feat of endurance & love has captured the imagination of the Indian people and the cycling federation!🇮🇳 https://t.co/uOgXkHzBPz

— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) May 22, 2020

CFI Chairman Onkar Singh recently told PTI that if Kumari passed the trial, she will be selected as a trainee at the state-of-the-art National Cycling Academy at the IGI Stadium complex here. Jyoti’s father, Mohan Paswan, an autorickshaw driver in Gurgaon got injured and the lockdown left him without any source of income. He had to return the autorickshaw to the owner.

The father and daughter duo started their journey from Gurgaon on May 10 after buying a cycle with whatever money they had and reached their village on May 16.

Netizens reacted to Ivanka’s Tweet.

The rich see Romanticism in a poor’s misery.

— 𝓓𝓻 𝓢 𝓝 𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓾𝓱𝓪𝓷 (@Yankee_Dehalvi) May 22, 2020

Cycle federation? Can you be anymore insensitive?

— پربھا (@deepsealioness) May 22, 2020

This wasn’t beutiful, it shows that govt doesn’t care for the poor and underprivileged. Don’t romanticize poverty.

— BaBu (@Babu90_) May 22, 2020

Nobody deserve this!
She is poor
This is purely insult.

— Malcom X (@libbuexposed) May 22, 2020

Cycling federation??? In India poor constitute Cycling federation.

— Idazaa (@Idazaa2) May 22, 2020

She was just praising the love of daughter for her father. At 15 years of age she has show so much courage and bravery. It’s not required to find flaws in everything..

— Nidhi Vyas (@vyasnidh) May 22, 2020

Please , don’t glorify the poverty.
This is not something to be proud of. This is something we are ashamed of 😑.

This shows the failure of the govt and arrogant way of implementing the #StayHome

— கல்வெட்டு (@kalvetu) May 22, 2020

PTI