“We may have differences within India, and the BJP government is indeed cheating us all. But that is separate,” said Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday said the Congress youth wing’s shirtless protest at the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi Friday was inappropriate, even as he maintained his broader criticism of the BJP-led central government. “We may have differences within India, and the BJP government is indeed cheating us all. But that is a separate thing. What Congress did on the global platform was not appropriate. They should have refrained from doing something that brings shame to our country in front of foreign delegates and world representatives,” Yadav said while speaking to party workers in Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh.
Yadav, whose party is a constituent of the opposition INDIA bloc alongside Congress, was careful to separate his objection to the protest from any broader political differences with the alliance. The controversy stems from a protest staged by Indian Youth Congress workers at the India AI Impact Summit held at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi. The workers, four of whom have so far been arrested, removed their shirts and walked through the exhibition hall displaying T-shirts with slogans reading “PM is compromised”, targeting the India-US trade deal.
The summit was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and was attended by global technology leaders including Sam Altman and Sundar Pichai, as well as foreign dignitaries and world representatives. Delhi Police arrested four of the men and has secured five days of custody after a local court rejected their bail plea. Congress has defended the protest and its manner. Spokesperson Pawan Khera said the IYC workers had reflected the anger of the youth and argued that protest was meant to be visible. “Protest is done where people see it. Protest is done where media cameras are there,” Khera said, also raising questions about what he described as a “compromised” India-US trade deal. BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra termed the Congress “topless, brainless and shameless”. Former Union minister Smriti Irani called the protest “an attack on India’s interests” that, she said, showed “a contempt for the people of India and for the entrepreneurial spirit of India”. Union minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan described it as “an act of sedition”. Clashes between BJP and Congress workers were reported in Indore, Puducherry, and Delhi.
