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Cong chief Kharge claims ‘utter chaos’ at AI Summit in Delhi; what minister Vaishnaw said on ‘mismanagement’
“Founders, exhibitors and visitors, all face extreme distress due to PM gatecrashing for a photo opportunity on the very first day,” Mallikarjun Kharge said.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday raised concerns regarding the crowd management at the ongoing AI Impact Summit at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi. Kharge alleged “utter chaos” and “rank mismanagement” on the inaugural day of the summit, while saying that the visitors had faced “extreme distress”.
Meanwhile, union minister for electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw reacted amid reports of “chaos” at the summit on Monday, apologising to visitors for “any inconvenience caused” during the event.
“If anybody has faced any problems yesterday, my apologies for that. We are working very hard. The entire team is working day and night and we will make all efforts to make sure it is enjoyable for all of you,” Vaishnaw assured those participating in and visiting the summit.
What did Kharge say?
In a post on social media platform X later, Kharge said that the AI summit “could have been a showpiece AI Summit for the entire world demonstrating the digital & AI capabilities of India".
However, he alleged, it turned into “utter chaos and rank mismanagement", while terming the Modi government “PR hungry.”
“Founders, exhibitors and visitors – all face extreme distress due to the PM gatecrashing for a photo opportunity on the very first day,” the Congress chief said in the post.
He further alleged shortage of food and water, prohibition of laptops and electronic devices, and only cash payments being taken inside the venue.
“Exhibitors are left without food and water, their products are stolen, Digi Yatra miserably fails, laptops, personal electronic devices and even bags are prohibited, only cash instead of digital/UPI payment is accepted, and founders are made to pay huge sums without basic facilities, among many other reasons of distress,” he said.
Kharge claimed it was “extremely unfortunate” that the country had to “suffer this global embarrassment due to the incompetancy of our own government.”
He further urged the Centre to “learn from the Bengaluru Tech Summit” organised annually. Bengaluru is the capital of Congress-government Karnataka.
Vaishnaw urges feedback: ‘We are open-minded’
Separately, while apologising for any inconvenience, minister Vaishnaw urged people to provide feedback on the summit. “We are open-minded,” he said, adding that his ministry and the teams involved in organising the summit had a war room operating since its inauguration.
“Any issue which is there, please report to us. We will definitely make efforts to make it more smooth and make it enjoyable for all of you,” Vaishnaw said, while also saying that the response to the summit had been “phenomenal.”
“The energy is palpable. Today more than 70,000 persons, especially youth, have attended. We can see the organisation is very smooth,” he said.
