Long queues, stolen products, no food: India’s AI summit marred by chaos
India’s AI Impact Summit, billed as a landmark gathering of global leaders and technology executives, was overshadowed by logistical chaos on its opening day in Delhi on Monday, BBC reported.
Participants complained about long queues, overcrowding and confusion at the venue, saying they had to wait for hours, while others reported limited access to food and water and said their products were stolen from their stall.
The five-day summit, inaugurated by PM Narendra Modi, is being promoted as the first major international AI meeting hosted in the Global South. More than 100 countries are taking part, with technology leaders including Sam Altman of OpenAI and Sundar Pichai of Alphabet expected to attend.
India’s Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw apologised to exhibitors for “any issue or inconvenience”.
The opening day was marred by complaints of poor crowd management at the summit venue Bharat Mandapam. By Monday afternoon, social media was flooded with complaints from founders, exhibitors and delegates who said security sweeps and last-minute closures left them stranded outside exhibition halls.
Maitreya Wagh, co-founder of voice AI start-up Bolna, wrote on X that he was unable to access his company’s booth after gates were closed.
Punit Jain, founder of tech platform Reskill, described “7 AM queues” followed by hours of waiting and a “full evacuation” before the prime minister’s arrival.
Absolute mayhem. Horrifying chaos. Zero civic sense.
The India AI Summit, an event meant to showcase India’s AI ambitions to the world, soon turned into a chaotic, poorly managed photo op for PM Modi.
The main hall was cleared for the PM’s visit. Security personnel were…
— Congress (@INCIndia) February 17, 2026
Indian opposition party Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said that the chaos and mismanagement at the summit is a global embarrassment due to the incompetence of the government.
“What could have been a showpiece AI Summit for the entire world, demonstrating the digital and AI capabilities of India, has reportedly turned into utter chaos and rank mismanagement by this ‘PR hungry’ government!” Kharge said in a post on X.
He said that founders, exhibitors and visitors had to face extreme distress due to the prime minister “gatecrashing” for a “photo opportunity” on the very first day of the five-day summit.
“Exhibitors are left without food and water, their products are stolen, Digi Yatra miserably fails, laptops, personal electronic devices and even bags are prohibited, only cash instead of digital/UPI payment is accepted, and founders are made to pay huge sums without basic facilities, among many other reasons of distress,” the Congress chief claimed.
“It is extremely unfortunate that our country has to suffer this global embarrassment due to the incompetence of our own government,” Kharge said.
In a post on its X handle, the Congress said, “Absolute mayhem. Horrifying chaos. Zero civic sense. The India AI Summit, an event meant to showcase India’s AI ambitions to the world, soon turned into a chaotic, poorly managed photo op for PM Modi.”
“The main hall was cleared for the prime minister’s visit, while security personnel were reportedly found misbehaving; founders reported their products were stolen, while exhibitors were evicted from their own stalls, the ones they had paid for.
“Adding insult to injury, the AI event saw multiple demonstrations fail due to unstable internet, while laptops and cameras were banned. At a tech event, no less. Even the food stalls refused to accept digital payments, preferring to deal only in cash,” the Congress claimed.
“When incompetence becomes normalised, embarrassment becomes the norm. Shameful!” the opposition party added.