New Delhi, February 24 As many as 277 prominent personalities, including former judges and former diplomats, have condemned the Congress youth wing's protest last week at the AI Impact Summit as an "unpardonable spectacle", alleging that it was not a spontaneous expression of dissent but a "premeditated act of sabotage".
In a joint statement, they also termed the Indian Youth Congress' agitation as "anti-national disruption designed to signal instability to global investors and partners", and called for a "collective rejection" of a political culture that finds pride in the "public defamation of the Motherland".
"The recent unpardonable spectacle at the India AI Impact Summit 2026, where members of the Indian Youth Congress staged a 'shirtless' protest within the corridors of Bharat Mandapam, is a grotesque betrayal of national dignity," the statement said.
It is even more disgusting because this was not a spontaneous expression of dissent, but a "premeditated act of sabotage", they said.
"We, as concerned citizens, strongly condemn this attempt to hijack a national milestone for partisan theatre of absurdity. Politics must stop at the patriotic edge, and international forums must remain off-limits for the undignified internal squabbles of any political party. Such actions did not hurt a government; they hurt a nation," the statement added.
Signatories to the joint statement included 26 judges, including former chief justice of Delhi High Court B C Patel, 102 retired bureaucrats including former police chiefs of various states, 11 ex-ambassadors and 149 retired armed forces officers.
Last Friday, a group of Congress youth wing workers held a dramatic shirtless protest at an exhibition hall during the AI Impact Summit at the Bharat Mandapam, walking around holding T-shirts with slogans against the government and the India-US trade deal printed on them, before being whisked away by security personnel present at the venue.
The Delhi Police has arrested eight IYC workers, including its president Uday Bhanu Chib, in connection with the incident.
Deploring the protest as "scripted tantrum", the group of eminent personalities said that it served only to defame the country on the global stage.
By choosing a high-level diplomatic and technological forum to execute a "crude, exhibitionist stunt", the organisers of the protest have proven that their brand of politics prioritises "personal optics over the prestige of the Republic", they charged.
The prominent personalities further said that democratic protest is a "sacred right", but it is not a "licence for anarchy or the public humiliation of the nation".
"True political opposition challenges policy through intellectual rigour and parliamentary debate; it does not resort to stripping in front of foreign dignitaries to garner social media traction," the statement said.
"This stunt has provided our adversaries with the very footage they need to undermine India's success story," it said, adding that the shirtless stunt was "a pathetic display of brainless politics that insults the intelligence of the Indian youth it claims to represent".
The eminent people also alleged that the protesters, who entered a secure international event venue under the guise of legitimate participants using QR codes only to strip and engage in "vulgar sloganeering", was a breach of both security and basic decorum.
"Such behaviour is not activism. It is an anti-national disruption designed to signal instability to global investors and partners," the statement said.
For any political entity to use an international summit as a backdrop for a "topless" ruckus is to tell the world that India is a “land of chaos” rather than a sophisticated global power, the personalities said.
"It mocks the hard work of our scientists, the aspirations of our engineers, and the hospitality of 1.4 billion citizens who take pride in hosting the world," the statement said.