Communist Party of India (CPI) MP P Sandosh Kumar on Monday hit out at the BJP for trying to link the Kerala government with the Jyoti Malhotra espionage case, saying it was an attempt to cover up its own failures on national security.
In an official statement issued here, the CPI Rajya Sabha MP said, “It is outrageous to suggest that a state government is responsible for a YouTuber’s travel to Pakistan when passport issuance, visa clearance, and intelligence monitoring are all under the control of the Union government.”
“Did the Kerala government approve her visits to Pakistan? Did it place her in contact with ISI handlers in Delhi? This is a desperate and politically motivated deflection,” he asserted.
Kumar alleged that there is a long list of the BJP and its allied organisation members linked to espionage and terrorism.
The CPI leader named Dhruv Saxena of BJP’s IT Cell in Bhopal, Bajrang Dal’s Balram Singh, LeT member Talib Shah, who, he said, was appointed BJP Minority Morcha IT head, and former BJP leader Tariq Mir, arrested for arms supply to militants, as people allegedly involved in anti-national activities.
Kumar said even DSP Davinder Singh, awarded the President’s Medal, was caught escorting Hizbul terrorists and later linked to Pakistani handlers.
“This is the BJP’s real national security record,” he was quoted as saying in the official statement issued here.
He also slammed the BJP-led government at the Centre on the Pahalgam issue, saying there have been no arrests in the case.
“Instead of taking responsibility, the BJP is now targeting Kerala over a routine tourism event Malhotra once attended—despite no link between that and her ISI recruitment. The Centre’s own agencies failed to detect multiple Pakistan trips and foreign funding, all under their direct jurisdiction,” he said.
The CPI reiterates that national security is a subject under the central government, and the BJP cannot wash its hands of “repeated intelligence lapses and the growing list of individuals with links to espionage and terror from within its fold”, he said in the statement.
On Sunday, the Kerala government came under heavy fire after it was revealed that Jyoti Malhotra, a social media influencer recently arrested on espionage charges, had visited the state as part of a government-sponsored tourism promotion campaign.
Malhotra, a Haryana-based vlogger, is now accused of leaking sensitive information to Pakistan.