Haryana YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra, accused of spying for Pakistan, was present during the inaugural Vande Bharat train from Hyderabad to Vizag in 2023. She has captured her journey in a vlog uploaded to her YouTube channel ‘Travel with Jo’. She, along with other YouTubers, were also part of the official event held at Secunderabad railway station.
Throughout the video, which was shot in January 2023, she was seen wearing patriotism on her sleeves. While travelling with fellow passengers, she joined in to raise slogans of ‘Vande Mataram’. She was also seen leading the sloganeering. Then there was an instance where a man holding an Indian flag ended up at one of the stations where the train makes a brief stop. She interacts with him and says, “proud to be an Indian.”
Jyoti recorded the official ceremony, which was inaugurated virtually by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. However, there were many high-profile dignitaries on stage, who were captured in her video. Seated were Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav, then Telangana Governor, Tamilisai Soundarrajan and Union Culture Minister and Secunderabad MP, G. Kishan Reddy. State BJP leadership was also part of the event in the form of then BJP president and now Minister of State for Home, Bandi Sanjay, and former BJP state president, Laxman. The state government was represented by Home Minister Mahmood Ali.
In her YouTube video, she documents the entire journey from Telangana’s capital, Hyderabad to the coastal town of Vizag in Andhra Pradesh. She gets down at Cherlapalli station, on the outskirts of Hyderabad, and captures the reaction of the public. At Vijayawada, which acts as the capital of Andhra Pradesh, she is offered Telugu traditional sweets. Jyoti also encourages fellow YouTubers and passengers to speak in Telugu in the video. In the same year, Jyoti had travelled to Hyderabad by train, evident from videos showing her taking the Duronto Express and Telangana Express.
