E-Paper
Indian Youth Congress president arrested over shirtless protest at AI Summit
The protest was done at the AI Impact Summit venue Bharat Mandapam in Delhi last week.
Delhi police arrested Indian Youth Congress (IYC) national president Uday Bhanu Chib in connection with the ‘shirtless protests’ by the members of the Youth Congress at the AI Impact Summit venue in the national capital last week.
This comes a day after the Delhi police said on Monday that they have made fifth arrest in connection with the protest at the AI Summit. They fifth person they arrested was identified as Jitendra Yadav who was held from Madhya Pradesh's Gwalior.
These arrests come after some workers of the Indian Youth Congress (IYC) entered the AI Impact Summit at the Bharat Mandapam last week on Friday, February 20, and staged a shirtless protests at the exhibition hall. They walked around with t-shirts that branded slogans criticising the government over the India-US trade deal.
The demonstrators were later taken away from the venue by the security personnel.
While the youth wing of Congress received a lot of flak over the protest at the event which hosted dignitaries from around the world, the IYC defended the demonstration and said that “peaceful demonstration is not anti-India”.
Indian Youth Congress (IYC) National General Secretary, Shesh Narayan Ojha, said on Monday that “opposing the government is not 'anti-India' and is our right”.
“Some of our leaders peacefully protested at the AI Summit. The Centre and the BJP are trying to establish a propaganda that this was 'anti-India'. As per my understanding, a peaceful demonstration is not 'anti-India'. By calling anything against the government 'anti-India', can they escape from the issues? The protestors' message was clear that the PM is compromised,” Ojha was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
"Youth Congress protested over this in several states, but the police lathi-charged and used water cannons. At the national level, we protested at the Jantar Mantar and our leaders were detained. They want to crush every opposition to the government. Opposing the government is not 'anti-India' and is our right. When Rahul Gandhi raised the issue in the Parliament, he was silenced. Finally, he spoke in the Parliament about the deal," he added.
