Raihan Vadra, son of Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, has alleged that the management of the Rajasthan government-run Bikaner House in Delhi made him take down most of the photographs in his exhibition ‘No Idea Is Final’, documenting the recent protests in the national capital, hours before the show opened on Wednesday evening.
“The photographs were of youth protests in Delhi,” Raihan Vadra said. “Apparently the content is ‘objectionable’,” he wrote on Instagram.
These included two featuring the Tiranga (tricolour) or national flag. He initially refused to take those two down, in particular. The last few weeks have seen extensive protests to demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged voter list fraud. Raihan’s mother, Lok Sabha member Priyanka Gandhi, has been a major face of the protests led by her brother, Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi, while the Cockroach Janta Party and other groups have also been holding demonstrations. The Congress blamed the Centre and the state’s ruling party BJP for it. “When even the Tricolour isn’t safe from the censor’s scissors, perhaps the problem isn’t the art.
He was asked to remove 75 of the 105 photographs from the show or face cancellation, he said. In all, 74 photos had to be removed. Raihan Vadra has shared photos from the October 11 Congress march to the Supreme Court, for instance, on his Instagram account. READ | Congress Eyes 125 Seats In UP, Priyanka Gandhi To Lead Alliance Talks Asked who told him to remove the photographs and why, Raihan Vadra said he received a written removal request at 3:30 pm, just hours before the show opened.
Bikaner House staff eventually took down one of those two photos when he stepped out of the venue, Raihan told NDTV. “It was signed by Manoj Singh, the Deputy Resident Commissioner,” he told NDTV. The written request cited non-compliance with the venue’s booking policy, he said. “Before that, I was asked by the Principal Resident Commissioner to remove the works, saying the timing and context were not correct to show these images,” he said. It’s the regime,” party MP and spokesperson Pawan Khera said on X.
