On the workers of the Indian Youth Congress staging a shirtless protest at the India AI Impact Summit 2026, a Delhi court observed that national interest and the country’s international image cannot be compromised. Acts capable of disrupting globally significant events require serious scrutiny and effective investigation, the court said, as per news agency PTI.
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“Such conduct palpably transcends the ambit of legitimate dissent, metamorphosing into a blatant assault on public order. It imperils not merely the event’s sanctity but also the Republic’s diplomatic image before foreign stakeholders, rendering it wholly unprotected by constitutional safeguards,” the court said, according to Bar and Bench.
The court said this as it rejected on Saturday the bail plea of the four IYC workers arrested in connection with the AI summit protest. The judge said that the possibility of them interfering with evidence could not be ruled out, hence no bail as yet.
The four accused are Krishna Hari, Kundan Yadav, Ajay Kumar and Narasimha Yadav and have been sent to five-day police custody.
Row after IYC’s shirtless protest at AI Summit
Workers of the IYC on Friday entered the venue of the AI Impact Summit wearing or holding T-shirts that had slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the India-US trade deal. The Delhi Police later said that the protesters had registered online for the summit and had entered the venue wearing jackets or sweaters that hid the T-shirts with anti-PM slogans.
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The shirtless protest soon kicked up a political slugfest as the BJP slammed the Congress for the orchestrating the protest that put India in a spot at an international-level event.
Following the protest, Congress leader Pawan Khera posted a video message on X and said that the IYC “removed the posters” and made the country notice the “cracks in the walls.”
“The Indian Youth Congress through the medium of a peaceful protest, have reflected the anger among the youth, at this AI Summit. There is a lot of hue and cry since then. A ‘compromised’ prime minister’s ‘incentivised’ media has started saying that, the protest has been staged at the ‘wrong place’, and it has brought dishonour to the country, protest should not have been done there,” he said.
On Sunday, PM Modi trained his guns at the Congress as he called the protest an an act of “dirty and naked politics” that “shamed the country” before international guests.
“The entire country was filled with pride,” Modi said, referring to the AI summit and added, “But what did the Congress and its ecosystem do? The Congress turned a global event for India into a platform for its dirty and naked politics. Congress leaders reached the venue naked in front of foreign guests.”
In a pointed barb, Modi remarked: “I ask the Congress people: the country knows that you are already naked, then why did you feel the need to take off your clothes?”
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