Uday Bhanu Chib, the national president of the Indian Youth Congress, has been arrested after several rounds of questioning in connection with the shirtless protest at Bharat Mandapan during the AI Impact Summit. Chib was arrested after about 15 hours of questioning at the Tilak Marg police station in connection with the shirtless protest at the AI meet. According to police sources, Chib did not cooperate during questioning and tried to mislead the investigators. They said they have sufficient evidence against him. Chib will now be produced in court. This is the eighth arrest in the case
The BJP had earlier called the shirtless protest "characterless, brainless, and emotionless". Party spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla had accused the Congress of undermining national progress. "Congress has once again proven that for them, AI isn't Ambitious India, Artificial Intelligence, Aspirational India. For them, AI is anti-India. This isn't the INC, this is the ANC, the anti-National Congress.
"The AI Summit is being praised worldwide. From President Macron to the United Nations Secretary General, to top tech company honchos, from Sam Altman to Sundar Pichai, everyone is praising it. Even Shashi Tharoor said the AI Summit was excellent. But at Rahul Gandhi's behest, the Congress party is protesting; it is a characterless, brainless, emotionless protest. This isn't a protest against the BJP, it's not a protest against the PM, it's a protest against India's achievements," he said.
Youth Congress has defended the protest, saying it was peaceful and aimed at drawing attention to a "compromised" prime minister. "Our message was clear, our slogan was clear, that the prime minister is compromised. In the past few days, in various places in the country, we organised protests, but there was a lathi-charge on our workers," said Youth Congress's national general secretary Sheh Narayan Ojha.
Ojha alleged that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was not allowed to speak on the Epstein files issue and questioned the circumstances surrounding a recent India-US trade deal. "The objective of the protest is to gain attention to issues from the government. We went there to get the attention of the youth at the summit. We did not harm anyone. For the party, India is the prime minister, but for us, India is the public," she said.
