Dear Reader,Politics is no sport, and Indian politics, where sportsmanship is now a museum piece, was never going to take this sportingly.Indian Youth Congress president Uday Bhanu Chib is discovering that the hard way, after a Delhi court sent him to four days of police custody following a shirtless protest by IYC workers at the India AI Impact Summit on February 20.IYC workers entered Hall No. 5 at Bharat Mandapam, removed their T-shirts to reveal printed slogans, and held up messages accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of being “compromised” over the India-US trade deal framework. The shirts also carried images of Modi and US President Donald Trump.Prime Minister Modi later denounced the protest, alleging that the Congress had turned a global event into a platform for what he called “dirty and naked politics” (gandi aur nangi rajniti). “Congress leaders reached the venue naked in front of foreign guests,” he said. He then added, with characteristic relish: “I ask the Congress people, the country knows that you are already naked; then why did you feel the need to take off your clothes?”Delhi Police arrested Chib and accused him of being the “mastermind” behind the protest. Police further alleged that the demonstration drew inspiration from Nepal’s recent Gen Z movement, which toppled the government there, and that it formed part of an “international conspiracy” to embarrass India before global leaders. When in doubt, add geopolitics.After Chib’s arrest, Rahul Gandhi hit back with a “This is India, not North Korea” jibe. Drawing a parallel between the Modi government and Kim Jong-un’s regime, Gandhi said the world’s largest democracy was being pushed towards a place where dissent is labelled treason and asking questions is called conspiracy. “When those in power start seeing themselves as the nation and dissent as the enemy, that is when democracy dies,” he said. He also called the shirtless IYC protesters his “Babbar Sher” and praised their “peaceful protest.”As Modi trained his fire on the Congress, the party retrieved an old photograph of former Haryana Minister Anil Vij, shirtless, at what appeared to be a BJP protest. Former IYC president Srinivas B.V. shared a clip of Vij’s protest on X on February 23 and wrote: “The nudes of yesterday, the BJPites of today.” He asked: “If stripping off a T-shirt to protest is called nudity, then what do you call this?”The polarised politics of the moment will not let this high-voltage drama settle quickly. But the question it leaves behind is worth asking: is shirtless really shameless?There are multiple examples of topless protests by women across the world, particularly in Europe. In India, the most resonant precedent remains July 15, 2004, when 12 Meira Paibis in Manipur stunned the country by stripping to the waist in front of the Assam Rifles headquarters at Kangla Fort in Imphal.Meira Paibi, literally “torchbearers,” are women’s groups from the majority Meitei community, also known as Imas, mothers of Manipur. Theirs was no spontaneous act. They held a banner that read “Indian Army Rape Us”. They were protesting the alleged gangrape, torture, and killing of Thangjam Manorama, a 32-year-old woman arrested by the 17th Assam Rifles and found dead hours later with gunshot wounds to her genitals. The protest jolted mainstream India out of its indifference to Manipur and drew global attention, not least because it inverted the language of shame and sent it back to the institution that had used it as a weapon.Beyond India, such protests have appeared elsewhere: the Ukrainian feminist group Femen; the 2012 “Sextremists” march in Paris; and, more recently, on March 8, 2025, when thousands of women staged a topless protest in Paris against the global rise of fascism. The annual Go Topless Day demonstrations in several countries make a similar argument. The body as statement, not spectacle.India carries a different set of codes. For women, such protests remain eruptions rather than routine. For men, the shirtless moment has mostly belonged to sport and cinema.The most enduring shirtless image in Indian sport belongs to Sourav Ganguly. On July 13, 2002, after India’s two-wicket victory over England in the NatWest Trophy final at Lord’s—chasing 326 after collapsing to 146 for 5 before Mohammad Kaif and Yuvraj Singh rebuilt the innings—Ganguly removed his shirt on the Lord’s balcony and twirled it overhead.It was widely read as a reply to Andrew Flintoff, who had done the same at the Wankhede Stadium months earlier after England levelled the ODI series 3-3. In the rush of that moment, Ganguly reportedly urged teammates to join him. Team manager Rajeev Shukla and a hesitant Rahul Dravid, with VVS Laxman also tugging at his shirt, stopped the contagion. Harbhajan Singh later said he was relieved. There could be only one “Salman Khan” (referring to the actor’s signature move in Bollywood).That brings us to Hindi cinema, where the shirtless male body has its own lineage. Dharmendra is usually credited with turning it into a statement. Sanjay Dutt carried it forward. Salman Khan converted it into a brand identity, with audience hysteria almost scripted into the reveal.Others followed: Shah Rukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Ajay Devgn, and John Abraham. Then the next line: Varun Dhawan, Ranveer Singh, Ishaan Khatter, Ibrahim Ali Khan. The trend travelled south, with Allu Arjun, Mahesh Babu, Prabhas, Rana Daggubati, and Ram Charan joining the roll of cinematic torsos.But politics is not cricket and certainly not cinema. Public opinion is not a stadium crowd. The arithmetic of a shirtless protest is rarely simple.Within the opposition, reactions were mixed. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said the Congress had chosen the wrong platform and should have avoided embarrassing the country before foreign delegates. BSP chief Mayawati disapproved of expressing political grievance through “semi-nudity” and warned against tarnishing India’s image. RJD MP Manoj Kumar Jha was gentler but suggested the manner of protest could have been better.Whether the stunt sharpened the Congress argument about the government’s record or merely handed the BJP a convenient distraction remains unclear. The Hindi-speaking heartland, where politics around the body carries a distinct charge, may judge it harshly or shrug, depending on which channel is on.As the verdict swings between “Babbar Sher” and “nangi rajniti”, this newsletter leaves the larger question to you: how much of nudity, or semi-nudity, belongs in politics?Somewhere in the background, a young generation hums a line from Gully Boy: Tu nanga hi to aaya hai, kya ghanta lekar jayega. “You came with nothing, and you’ll leave with nothing.”Until the next political theatre,Anand Mishra, Political Editor, FrontlineWe hope you have been enjoying our newsletters featuring a selection of articles that we believe will be of interest to a cross-section of our readers. 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