A day after Delhi court observed that ‘shirtless protest’ at AI summit had imperiled nation’s image in the eyes of foreign stakeholders while it sent 4 persons to Police custody, Indian Youth Congress (IYC) on Monday said its recent protest at the AI Impact Summit was peaceful and aimed at drawing attention to what it described as a 'compromised' Prime Minister, alleging that its leaders were being politically targeted and falsely implicated.
Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, IYC leaders claimed that their workers faced lathi-charge in recent protests across the country and were being treated 'like terrorists', following the demonstration at the summit. A group of 10 IYC workers held a brief protest inside Hall No 5 of the AI Impact Summit on February 20, raising slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"We were doing a peaceful protest. 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 IYC national general secretary Sheh Narayan Ojha. He alleged that senior 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 deal was made suddenly, with no bilateral meetings, nothing was made public. Deals that were stuck for so long were done overnight. Then we got to know from the American president that the deal was stuck and that 18 per cent tariffs were imposed. This happened right after Modi and Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri's names were there in the Epstein files," Ojha claimed.
IYC national general secretary Surbhi Dwivedi said the protest was meant to highlight issues concerning youth and employment."The meaning of 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.
IYC's legal cell chairperson Roopesh Singh Bhadauria alleged that party leaders were arrested in a 'malicious prosecution'. "The Youth Congress leaders were arrested like terrorists, in the early morning hours and even at night. Leaders who were not even available at the protest site were treated as terrorists, and beaten black and blue. This is a malicious prosecution, like a witch-hunt," he said.
He claimed that the parents of two IYC members were kept in custody in Gwalior to trace the leaders and bail pleas were being rejected while police were seeking five-day custody."This is political targeting. We are not going to back down. We will fight this through all legal procedures and will take action against the Delhi Police as well for their conduct," he added.
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