NEW DELHI: Raihan Vadra, the nephew of Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, said he was forced to remove several artworks documenting youth protests from his exhibition at a government-run cultural centre in New Delhi this week.
Raihan Vadra, 26, the son of Gandhi’s sister, lawmaker Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, said the management at Bikaner House forced him to remove the artwork just hours before his exhibition opened on Wednesday.
Youth protests, led by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), have emerged as a major challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. A weeks-long sit-in forced the resignation of his education minister in July over exam paper leaks.
Demonstrations erupted again this month, with opposition groups led by Gandhi at the forefront, seeking the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over a controversial revision of voter lists.
“The photos were of the youth protests in Delhi,” Vadra said in a post on social media. “Apparently the content is objectionable.”
#WATCH | Delhi: On the Bikaner House Exhibition and photo removal controversy, Raihan Vadra, son of Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Robert Vadra, says, “Yesterday, my show was supposed to open at 7 pm. The show was called ‘No Idea is Fine’. 24 hours before it was to open, I was first approached by the Bikaner House management and told that some of the images are against their policy. I said, ‘Let me know which ones; let’s have a discussion. I didn’t hear back from them till the next day… when the Deputy Resident Commissioner reached out and said that we have to remove all these images, which were street photography images of the youth movements in Delhi over the last year. I said, ‘I shared the layout a week earlier; why didn’t you bring it up earlier?’ They said, ‘We couldn’t see the layout.’ So I said, ‘You still had 1 week to tell me you couldn’t see the layout. I would have sent it; we could have had the discussion earlier. Now, in 4-5 hours, what am I going to do?’ I asked them to give it to me in writing as to why they are removing these photographs, individual reasons; they didn’t. Then at 3 pm, the head of Bikaner House, the principal resident commissioner, came, and he also said the same thing. I also said the same thing to him. He said, ‘Your policy says political content’. For the most part, I had removed imagery of political parties and of political leaders. Maybe there were a few photographs; I said, ‘We could discuss. If they are against your policy, I’ll replace them.’ He said, “No, none of these 70 images will be put up.’ 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.’ Then we complied. We flipped the photographs. So you could only see the back of the frame. They had a problem with that. We took those down, piled them up on the side. They had a problem with that. We put them in storage. I left two photos of the Indian flag, and they said, ‘Take it down.’ I said, ‘This can’t be against your policy. How can it be against your policy?’ I said, ‘Give it to me in writing that you want me to take down a picture of the Indian flag.’ They didn’t. So those were there, and then I went home to change. They took one down themselves. So one is remaining, if you had seen it.”
— ANI (@ANI) October 22, 2026
He was also directed to remove two photographs of the Indian flag, but he refused, he said.
The Bikaner House Management Society said it had requested the removal of “certain photographs” from the exhibition that were inconsistent with its policies, without elaborating.
The Bikaner House Management Society said it had requested the removal of “certain photographs” from the exhibition that were inconsistent with its policies, without elaborating.
Bikaner House is owned by the western state of Rajasthan, which is ruled by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.
Vadra’s exhibition, titled “No Idea is Final,” is listed on Bikaner House’s website, which describes it as a display of “photographs, multimedia artworks and installations” focused on themes including “nature, wildlife, abstract artworks, portraits, sculptures and immersive installations.”
“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,” his mother Priyanka said on social media on Thursday.
.@raihanrvadra 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. ❤️ mama
— Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (@priyankagandhi) October 22, 2026
Modi’s government has faced criticism over its handling of protests this month, during which thousands of people were detained and parts of central Delhi were repeatedly locked down.
