An exhibition venue in New Delhi run by the government of BJP-ruled Rajasthan has forced photographer Raihan Vadra to take down all except one of his pictures of the protests in Delhi against chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
Raihan, son of Congress MP Priyanka Vadra, said he had been told to remove 70 of the 105 photos on display on two floors of Bikaner House, barely three-and-a-half hours before the inauguration of the exhibition on Wednesday night.
Seventy-one of the 105 pictures were of the protests, which have witnessed large-scale detentions of demonstrators, journalists and content creators. The remaining 34 were wildlife photos and cityscapes.
The Bikaner House Management Society (BHMS), headed by Rajasthan chief secretary V. Srinivas in his capacity as chief resident commissioner, has defended the decision.
Raihan’s wildlife photos remain displayed on the ground floor, and cityscapes and concert photos on the first floor. Three rooms on the first floor have been cleared of all pictures. One protest photo featuring the Tiranga, which he fought to retain, is in the first-floor corridor near the staircase landing.
Dub Sharma’s Azadi, which remixes Kanhaiya Kumar’s “azadi” chant as a disco track, and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s Tere Bin Nahin Lagda continue to play in the background at the venue. On Thursday, Azadi echoed from empty wall to empty wall in several first-floor rooms.
Some people put up printouts of some of the protest photos outside the venue on Thursday evening, but the security guards soon removed them.
Raihan told The Telegraph that the exhibition would continue with the 35 remaining photographs till the scheduled conclusion on October 25.
“We are working to find a venue that has available space to book for the exhibit sometime in the next few months,” he said.
“Nothing has been finalised yet.... I support the protests against the SIR because I believe in the Constitution of India and the right to vote given by it to every citizen.”
Priyanka shared on X images of the exhibition, “No Idea Is Final”, that had been clicked before the protest photos were removed.
She tagged her son 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.”
The BHMS said in a statement: “Certain photographs displayed as part of Mr. Raihan Vadra’s exhibition, ‘No Idea Is Final,’ at Bikaner House (were) found to be inconsistent with the policy of the Bikaner House Management Society. Accordingly, their removal was requested. The photographs that are consistent with the Society’s policy have been continued to be displayed.”
According to the BHMS website, its booking policy bars “nudity, communal themes, or political content”.
Raihan told PTI: “Yesterday afternoon, they told me first that their team came to see the show and complimented me on the photos. Then later in the afternoon, I got a call from the deputy resident commissioner, who said we have to remove all those photos.
“I said, ‘Please give it to me in writing’. They were refusing to give it to us in writing. Then the principal resident commissioner came. He walked through the show with me and basically said that the context and timing of displaying these pictures was incorrect and that I had not shared these pictures with them before.
“I said that I had shared a layout with these images a week earlier. They then said that the layout was not legible and they couldn’t read it. I said, ‘But then you could have told me six days ago’.”
Raihan said he refused to take down two photos that featured the national flag, and told the officials: “This can’t be against your policy. Give it in writing.”
One of those photos was taken down by the officials.
“I had to tell them that an art institution should not have such a policy. I mean, most art is political, right?” Raihan told PTI.
“You cannot function as an artistic institution and then say that political content is not allowed.... Over the last six years, I must have now done 12 to 15 shows here.”
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray wrote on X: “Facing a regime that is so scared of even photographs without any descriptions, kudos to you for standing up for the national flag....
“The management must think whether it truly is Indian. To take down the photos of the National Flag, is an anti national act. When democracy is reclaimed, the management must face the Indian version of Nuremberg trials for this anti national act.”
BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia resorted to mockery and a personal attack, saying: “Priyanka mummy’s mission is to launch Raihan.”
NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) spokesperson Anish Gawande said: “Why is the BJP afraid of seeing the brutality unleashed by Delhi Police?”