Congress Working Committee (CWC) member Shashi Tharoor has diverged from his party’s stance to defend the ongoing Bharat AI Impact Summit, describing minor lapses “small errors” and commending the event as a significant global success.
Speaking before his address at the Bharat Mandapam on Friday, Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said, “Such incidents can occur at large programmes. There is no need to magnify them. The summit is noteworthy because of the scale of public participation.”
The summit is being held in the national capital, and drew criticism from Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge. They questioned organisational shortcoming and highlighted controversies such as the display if a Chinese-made robot under the ‘Make in India’ banner by Galgotias University.
Tharoor, however, underscored India’s emerging leadership in shaping global discourse on artificial intelligence and called for greater attention to the summit’s broader diplomatic and technological significance.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, addressing the gathering, emphasised the need to ensure equitable access to AI technologies for countries of the Global South. He advocated “opening the skies for AI while maintaining appropriate regulatory oversight,” stressing that the benefits of the technology should be widely shared rather than concentrated among a few corporations or nations.
The Prime Minister also called for robust legal safeguards to protect women and children, asserted the importance of national ownership of data, and proposed mandatory disclosure requirements for AI-generated content.
A plenary session aligned with India’s proposals brought together representatives from 119 countries, including 20 heads of state and 45 ministers.
French President Emmanuel Macron commended India’s efforts to integrate its 1.4 billion citizens into the digital ecosystem.
In contrast to the previous summit in France, which revealed sharp divisions over AI regulation, India steered the discussions toward consensus and delivered a unified vision document.
Tharoor’s remarks mark a rare departure from the party’s official stance, as several Congress leaders expressed criticism while he highlighted the summit’s accomplishments.
His intervention, combined with the scale of international participation and India’s strategic digital agenda, has placed him at the forefront of attention as the country projects its leadership in artificial intelligence on the global stage.
