Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi’s son Raihan Vadra said on Thursday (October 22) that he was asked to remove 70 of his 105 photographs from his solo exhibition, which was held at Delhi’s Bikaner House. He said he was asked to take them down just a day before the show’s opening.
The incident drew reaction from several political leaders in the Opposition, who hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party-led (BJP) government at the Centre for setting a “clear example of censorship.”
Who is Raihan Vadra? What’s the controversy? What did these pictures show? Here’s all you needto know:
Raihan Vadra is the son of Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Robert Vadra. He is an artist and photographer.
Raihan Vadra made headlines on Wednesday when reports claimed he was made to remove more than half of the photographs that were to be included in his solo exhibition organised at the Rajasthan government-run Bikaner House in Delhi.
Raihan Vadra shared a detailed account of the incident in an interview with news agency PTI on Thursday.
He said the Bikaner House administration pulled down many of his pictures of the recent Delhi protests ahead of a solo exhibition. His show was named ‘No Idea Is Final,’ a poster of which was shared by Priyanka Gandhi on X on Wednesday.
Raihan claimed that he was told by the authorities that some of his pictures “might be objectionable or against their policy.”
“My show, ‘No Idea Is Final’, was supposed to start at 7PM yesterday [Wednesday, Oct 21] at Bikaner House. Twenty-four hours before the opening, I was approached by the Bikaner House management and told that some of the pictures might be objectionable or against their policy,” Vadra said.
“I said that I did not believe they were, but I was happy to discuss the matter and asked them to get back to me in writing, explaining what the concerns were…,” he added.
“Then, at around 12.30 pm, we received a call from the Deputy Resident Commissioner saying that I had to remove 70 of the 105 photographs in the exhibition because they were allegedly against the policy…,” Raihan told PTI.
What did these photographs by Raihan show?
Priyanka Gandhi’s son said that after reviewing their policy, he “sectioned out” images that contained “overtly political slogans…”
He said these were street photography images of the youth movements in Delhi over the last year.
Raihan said, “None of the images had any naras; maybe there were some images that had political flags and a few images that had political leaders — that was where I was happy to have a discussion.”
“I didn’t hear back from them till the next day [Wednesday, when the show was supposed to open],” he said.
The next say, the Deputy Resident Commissioner told Raihan that he has to remove all the images, “which were street photography images of the youth movements in Delhi over the last year.”
Raihan said he was told a similar thing by the principal resident commissioner. The latter also said that the “context of the protests and everything happening in Delhi was what made the artwork political, and that I had to remove the photographs.”
“Once we had removed them, the officials came back to inspect the exhibition and said that the arrangement still did not work. They sent me an email saying that I had to remove some more photographs as well. So I took them down, and they told me to leave them aside…,” Raihan added.
“They sent me a notice at 3.30 saying, ‘If you don’t remove it by 5 PM, the building is sealed, and the exhibition is canceled,” Raihan told ANI.
Raihan said he was even told to remove the images featuring the Indian flag.
“Afterwards, they [officials] came back and said that I had to remove the two photographs of the Indian flag as well. I said, ‘But they are just pictures of the Indian flag. I do not think there is anything in your policy that says photographs of the Indian flag have to be removed,” he said.
“At that point, I firmly told them to put their demand in writing if they wanted me to remove the photographs of the Indian flag,” Raihan said.
He claimed the officials did not send him anything in writing. “They left one photograph in place, but while I was at home changing for the opening, they removed the other photograph of the Indian flag themselves. I have a video of them doing that,” he added.
There’s no official word from the Bikaner House yet on the controversy.
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra took to X to show support for her son, Raihan. She took a dig at the CJP government and said, “When someone with power becomes afraid of the expression of another, he doesn’t know it, but he has already lost the very power he is trying to protect.”
“You stand for what is true and everything beautiful will find its way to you. I am proud of you, always will be,” Vadra posted on X.
Meanwhile, Raihan’s father said, “There was a lot of pressure on him to remove everything, and this happened just two hours before the opening of his exhibition.”
“…I think he was brave enough to go ahead with the exhibition using whatever remained. As I said, I am proud of him,” Robert Vadra added.
Meanwhile, Congress leader Pawan Khera described the incident as “a chilling metaphor for censorship.”
“One of the works Raihaan had to ‘fight’ to retain was a photograph of the Indian flag. Otherwise, the walls meant for art were left with nothing but exposed iron nails, gleaming under the spotlights – a chilling metaphor for censorship,” Khera said.
Former Rajasthan Chief Minister and Congress leader also targeted the BJP, saying, “This means that, under the watch of the BJP government, the artistic expression of a young artist was stifled, which is highly condemnable.”
“Suppressing the voices of artists is a direct attack on democracy. This is a clear example of censorship. The BJP government must answer why photographs depicting the truth were removed,” Gehlot posted on X.
