PETA India has written to Galgotias University, requesting a donation of a robo dog to replace live animals in circuses, advocating for the use of technology to entertain without animal exploitation.

​Mahua Moitra also shared a Vaishnaw's deleted X post in which he had purportedly praised the Galgotias University's robodog, which triggered a massive backlash online over its Chinese origins. ​ In the post, as was posted by the TMC leader, Vaishnaw had said: "Bharat's sovereign models are performing well on global benchmarks."

Galgotias University issued an apology after misrepresenting a commercially available robotic dog as its own innovation at the AI Impact Summit 2026.