New Delhi (India) February 18:The opposition leaders condemned the show of a commercially available Chinese robot being positioned as an in-house innovation by an Indian university at the AI Summit as “shameful” and criticized IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw for posting the image on social media. They also cast doubt on links between the university and BJP leaders. 

Congress Hits Out at Vaishnaw

The Congress said, “The Modi government has made a laughing stock of India globally, with regard to AI. In the ongoing AI summit, Chinese robots are being displayed as our own. The Chinese media has mocked us. This is truly embarrassing for India. What is even more shameful is the fact that Modi’s minister Ashwini Vaishnaw is indulging in the same falsehood, promoting China's robots at the Indian summit” on social media platform X.
"The Modi Government has caused irreparable damage to the image of the country - they have reduced AI to a joke - a field in which we could be world leaders given our data power," it added.

BJP Links Alleged by CPI(M)

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) Rajya Sabha MP John Brittas claimed Galgotias University had the patronage and support of its key BJP leaders.
“Galgotias University has enjoyed the patronage and support of prominent BJP leaders, with Dr Sambit Patra to Union Minister Piyush Goyal having graced various university programmes. It is no surprise that the institution frequently emphasizes the ‘Viksit Bharat’ slogan,” Brittas said.

Shiv Sena Demands Penalties

According to Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Priyanka Chaturvedi, it was a disgrace to have attended the event and said huge damage had been inflicted.
"Galgotias University passing off Chinese robot as own invention at the AI Summit is a shame. Chinese media having a field day over it makes it worse. All this could have been avoided if before allotting the pavilions a thorough credibility check was done of companies, universities, start-ups and others,” she said.
“The damage this has caused for India and the Summit is big. Asking the university to vacate their pavilion was a good step, I feel some strict penalty must also be imposed on them,” she added.

The Robot Exposed

It was revealed that Galgotias University had erected a made-in-China robot as its own innovation, after which it was moved from its pavilion at the AI Summit at Bharat Mandapam.
Neha Singh, the university’s professor of communications, was covered prominently featuring the robotic dog ‘Orion’ on DD News on Tuesday. It has been developed by the Centre of Excellence at Galgotias University, she said. Once the video gained notoriety, social media users pointed out that the robot was in fact a Unitree Go2, from China’s Unitree Robotics, a commercially available quadruped robot sold in India in the range of Rs 2–3 lakh.