Addressing a press conference in the national capital, Delhi Youth Congress president Akshay Lakra said workers of the party’s youth wing from across the country would gather at Jantar Mantar along with their national president Uday Bhanu Chib to protest against the Centre’s policies and the India-US trade deal.
The Indian Youth Congress (IYC) will draw attention to how the trade deal would harm farmers and the textile sector and compromise the country’s data security, Lakra said.
He said the Youth Congress members had earlier protested during the AI Summit as well, which he described as an exercise of their “democratic right”.
Chib was arrested for the “shirtless protest” at the AI Impact Summit last month and was released from Tihar jail on March 3.
“Both the sessions court and the Delhi High Court have acknowledged that protests are an integral part of democracy,” Lakra said.
He further alleged that the recently announced India-US trade deal would allow Indian data to be accessed by the US and adversely affect domestic sectors.”Under this trade deal, our data will clearly be sold to the US, farmers across the country will suffer losses and our textile industry will be severely impacted,” Lakra claimed.
He also alleged that Youth Congress members who protested during the AI Summit faced harassment by authorities but said none of the protesters were currently in police or judicial custody.
Youth Congress national secretary and Delhi co-incharge Hevaran Kansana said the organisation expected large participation in the March 16 protest.
On February 20, IYC workers entered the AI summit venue wearing and holding white T-shirts with images of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump printed on them, along with slogans such as “India-US Trade Deal”, “Epstein Files” and “PM is compromised”.
