Ivanka praises Indian girl who cycled down 1200 km carrying ailing father

PTI, May 23, 2020, 2:17 PM IST

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

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 1200km 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.

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.