AI Summit 2026: Youth Congress members stage ‘shirtless protest’; 10 detained

A group of Indian Youth Congress IYC workers on Friday staged a dramatic shirtless protest at the AI Impact Summit exhibition hall holding Tshirts with slogans against the government and the IndiandashUS trade deal before being removed by security personnelA senior police officer told news agency PTI that around 10 protesters were detained during the demonstrationldquoThey were removed immediately and taken to Tilak Marg police station No one will be allowed to breach law and orderrdquo the officer addedThe Bharatiya Janata Party BJP criticised the protest alleging that Congressrsquo youth wing had created a ldquoruckusrdquo at the venue to tarnish Indiarsquos global image at the behest of former party chief Rahul GandhiThe protesters marched into Exhibition Hall No 5 wearing or holding white Tshirts printed with images of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump along with slogans such as ldquoIndiandashUS Trade Dealrdquo ldquoEpstein Filesrdquo and ldquoPM is compromisedrdquo creating a commotionThe incident led to heated exchanges between some summit attendees and the protestersYouth Congress says protest was against compromises on Indiarsquos interests not AI Summit 2026Posting a video of the protest the IYC said the question they were raising was ldquoWhy exactly did young Congress workers need to raise their voices against the lsquocompromised PM inside the AI SummitrsquordquoThe statement added ldquoIn a country where the media the system and the prime minister himself have already been compromised what platform remains to raise a voice against it If we protest on the streets we are stopped Under the guise of IT Rules social media posts against the government are taken down The media has become the governmentrsquos mouthpiece So what avenue remains open to usrdquoThe Youth Congress clarified ldquoWe are not against the AI Summit We are against the compromises being made with Indiarsquos interests When the countryrsquos farmers are being bargained away antiIndia trade agreements are being signed and the youth is kept unemployed while being dragged into politics of hate should we stay silentrdquoThey added ldquoThis country belongs to 140 crore citizens If we know how to walk the path shown by Mahatma Gandhi we also know how to walk the path shown by Sardar Bhagat Singh We will never allow the interests of the countryrsquos youths and farmers to be bargained away Inquilab ZindabadrdquoA Delhi Police officer on duty said security inside the halls will be heightened following the ldquounfortunate episoderdquoThe protest which lasted a few minutes before the group was removed surprised guests and other visitors many of whom watched in disbelief given the global significance of the AI Summit hosted by IndiaThe AI Impact Summit held from February 16ndash20 at Bharat Mandapam is seeing participation from several heads of state global AI leaders academicians researchers top executives of tech giants and philanthropists Prime Minister Modi inaugurated the summit on Thursday in the presence of world leaders and global tech headsAfter being removed from the hall the protesters moved to the lobby stood against a large backdrop and continued shouting slogans against the governmentA student from Ludhiana visiting the Impact Arena on Friday said that general visitors registering through the summit website receive a QR code in their emailldquoThis QR code carries the name and identity of their organisation or institution and is used to enter the Bharat Mandapam premisesrdquo he explainedWith PTI inputs