NEW DELHI: A day after 75 out of 105 photographs by Raihan Vadra, son of Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, were taken down from Bikaner House, the artist said art knows no political boundary. His family backed him while the venue, owned by the Rajasthan government, claimed the “photographs breached guidelines” and were against policy.
Raihan told TMS on Thursday that he’d asked what the venue’s policy was but had not received a “logical enough” response. On his mother’s social media post, he said,
“My family has been very supportive about the entire issue and asked me to continue my work despite such a fiasco.” In the post addressed to Raihan, the MP 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.”
Meanwhile, Raihan was looking for a place to display the entire solo show, ‘No Idea Is Final’, with Travancore Palace emerging as an option. Refuting BJP’s charges that he was being positioned for a political role, Raihan said, “This art is my politics... I have no plans to join any party... and anyway, art is political.”
Bikaner House in a statement on Thursday said certain of Raihan’s works were found to be inconsistent with its policy, and their removal was requested. The team didn’t clarify what the guidelines were.
Raihan said the venue’s management asked him to remove photographs of recent youth movements in India, citing their “political nature”, five hours before the show was to open on Wednesday. He said his proposal, approved on June 30, 2025 by the venue, had said the show would feature images exploring themes of “choice, control and unity”.
Raihan said he was contacted by the management at 6 pm on Tuesday and asked to remove the protest pictures. He was subsequently told to remove all works considered “political” by 3.30 pm Wednesday, failing which the exhibition would be cancelled. He added the works had since been removed to allow the show to continue until October 25.
No blank frames either
Raihan said the team replaced the “political” photos with blank frames but was told that too was unacceptable. “They left one photo of the Tricolour in place but ... removed the other photo of the Indian flag themselves,” he said
