Ivanka Trump’s tweet on Indian girl angers many

The other day, a 15-year-old girl named Jyoti Kumari had to peal 1,200km for seven days from Gurgaon in Haryana to her native village in Bihar.  This the teen girl did carrying her sick father on the rear seat of her bicycle.  Since it has been a lockdown and no inter-state transport was allowed at that time, Kumari had no easy mode of transport to rescue her and her ailing dad.  The poor girl had to do it out of desperation.

Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump, however, seems to believe that it’s some kind of special achievement.  Taking to Twitter, Ivanka tweeted, “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!”

The tweet hasn’t gone down well with many.  Columnist Rupa Subramanya replied to Ivanka, saying, “Are you seriously this clueless? This kid and her family had to go through this horrific experience because of India’s ill-conceived total lockdown which has resulted in a humanitarian disaster, not because she’s aspiring to be a professional cyclist.”

Journalist Vidya Krishnan wrote, “This is child abuse. Not a “beautiful feat of endurance”. A teenager should not have to cycle 1200kms with a wounded parent. In civilized cultures, this will not be romanticized.  Have you celebrated anything along these lines your kids endured?”