Thiruvananthapuram: Facing political heat over the visit of influencer Jyoti Malhotra to Kerala in 2024-25, the state’s Tourism Minister P.A. Mohammed Riyas clarified Tuesday that she was part of a routine Kerala tourism campaign handled by external agencies in the absence of any oversight by his department or by the state government.
As the BJP unit in Kerala continues to clamour over the issue, demanding a probe into the state visit by the vlogger, the ruling Left Democratic Front has found support from unexpected quarters. The Opposition in the state, the Congress-led United Democratic Front, has come forward to defend the Pinarayi Vijayan-led state government and Riyas.
Jyoti Malhotra, known for her YouTube channel Travel with Jo, was arrested in Hisar, Haryana, in May 2025 on charges of espionage under the Official Secrets Act. She allegedly passed on sensitive information to the Pakistani spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in the aftermath of the 22 April Pahalgam terror attack.
Kerala assembly Leader of Opposition V.D. Satheesan, however, said he does not blame the tourism department or Riyas for her visit, asking whether anyone could have known she was a spy when she came to the state in 2024-25, months before her arrest. The Kerala government would not have invited her if it had known that she was a spy, he added.
“When she came, she was invited as a vlogger, not as a spy. Who could have known then that she was a spy?” Satheesan asked.
When ThePrint approached the tourism department, it shared a video from a social media account held by Jyoti Malhotra. The video shows her speaking to the BJP leader and former Union minister, V. Muraleedharan, following the inauguration of the second Vande Bharat train in Kerala in September 2023. She visited Kerala to participate in a promotional video during the launch of the train connecting Kasaragod to Thiruvananthapuram.
Then, in 2024 and January 2025, she revisited Kerala.
“How were we supposed to know in January that an issue would arise in May? The central agencies that should inform states about such matters also did not alert us,” said Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Mohammed Riyas.
Calling the controversy created by the BJP unnecessary and driven by its desire to gain political mileage in Kerala, Mohammed Riyas said Jyoti Malhotra might have visited many other states, including those ruled by the BJP, at the time.
“The practice of bringing influencers from outside for tourism promotion is not new. Empanelled agencies manage the entire programme. The minister or department does not interfere with who the agencies invite, or what they do,” Riyas told reporters Tuesday.
On Monday, ANI published an RTI reply, revealing Jyoti Malhotra as among 41 influencers who visited Kerala earlier this year as part of a tourism promotion initiative.
Soon after, BJP leaders at the state and national levels began using the information to attack the Kerala government.
BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla has accused the Left government of blocking “Bharat Mata” while giving “red carpet” treatment to “Pakistani spies”, demanding that Mohammed Riyas resign and face an investigation over the issue.
State BJP leader and advocate B. Gopalakrishnan has alleged that there must be some mystery behind Jyoti Malhotra’s ‘Kerala visit’. “There is a mystery… Many terrorist outfits have found roots in the state, and the administration has always supported them,” Gopalakrishnan told ThePrint.
When asked about the video, Gopalakrishnan added that there was no proof that the BJP called upon Jyoti Malhotra to promote the Vande Bharat train in 2023.
Riyas said that he initially felt the matter did not deserve a response, but changed his mind as it triggered “unnecessary discussions and comments by some senior political leaders”. “For them, it might suit their political agenda, but for society, it creates an unnecessary perception about Kerala’s tourism sector,” he said.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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