Kolkata, 20 February (H.S.) : West Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party Chief Spokesperson and advocate Debjit Sarkar on Thursday addressed the media from the party’s Salt Lake office, strongly condemning the activities of Youth Congress workers during the recent international Artificial Intelligence Summit held at Bharat Mandapam.

At the outset, Sarkar alleged that the protest at the venue had been “orchestrated from 10, Janpath Road,” referring to the residence associated with senior Congress leadership. He claimed that Youth Congress members staged a shirtless protest inside Bharat Mandapam during the high-profile summit, which was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, French President Emmanuel Macron, and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

The summit also saw participation from global technology leaders, including Sundar Pichai of Google, Sam Altman of OpenAI, Demis Hassabis of DeepMind, and Dario Amodei of Anthropic, among others.

Highlighting the scale of the event, Sarkar said India hosted representatives from over 100 countries, including 20 heads of state and 60 ministers. More than 1,000 chief executives, researchers, and policymakers participated in the summit, with over 15,000 registered attendees. The programme featured more than 100 sessions and exhibitions, and 300 exhibitors from 30 countries.

Sarkar identified the Youth Congress members allegedly involved in the protest as Krishna Hari, National Secretary of the Youth Congress; Kundan Yadav, Secretary of the Bihar Youth Congress; Ajay Kumar, Vice President of the Uttar Pradesh Youth Congress; and Narsingh Yadav, National Coordinator of the Youth Congress. According to him, the individuals had pre-registered for the summit, obtained badge codes, and initially entered wearing T-shirts before removing their upper garments to stage the protest.

The BJP spokesperson asserted that the press conference was “not about BJP versus Congress,” but about what he described as forces seeking to undermine the unity and integrity of the nation. He alleged that the incident had been planned at the residence of Rahul Gandhi with the consent of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Sonia Gandhi. He further claimed that the Congress party, having lost political relevance, resorted to such actions to attract media attention, thereby damaging India’s global image.

Sarkar also criticised the Gandhi family’s long tenure in governance, alleging that despite decades in power, they failed to prioritise national development. He accused the Congress party of disregarding constitutional and democratic values and said the party had become politically irrelevant in several states, including West Bengal.

Concluding his remarks, Sarkar said that those who believe in a “Nation First” principle would not tolerate such incidents and reiterated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi serves the country as its “Pradhan Sevak.”

Hindusthan Samachar / Satya Prakash Singh