Raihan Vadra says 74 of 105 photos were pulled from his Delhi show

NewsPlainly card. Photo: Gryffindor, CC0, Wikimedia Commons, edited by NewsPlainly.

Photographer and curator Raihan Vadra, son of Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, said on 21 October 2026 that the management of Bikaner House in New Delhi had him remove most of his photographs of recent protests in the capital, hours before his exhibition “No Idea Is Final” opened there. Bikaner House has not commented publicly on his account.

What Raihan Vadra says happened at Bikaner House

According to Raihan Vadra, the first objection came at about 6 pm on 20 October, the day before the opening, and he was told the venue would get back to him. The first written objection reached him at 3.30 pm on 21 October, he told The Indian Express. It gave him 30 minutes to remove or replace 74 of the 105 works on show. The exhibition opened at 7 pm.

The only reason given, he said, was that the timing and context of the photographs were not appropriate, that the works were overtly political, and that with the city under heavy security this was the wrong moment for such images. His team put blank frames where the photographs had been, but he said the venue then objected to the empty frames as well. By the evening about 35 works remained on the walls.

Raihan Vadra also said he was asked to take down two photographs that showed the national flag. “I have refused. I will not take down a picture of the Indian flag,” he wrote on Instagram, as The Hindu reported. He told The Indian Express that those images were removed by the venue’s staff after he left the premises.

The venue’s rules and the exhibition proposal

Bikaner House has a policy against political content, and Raihan Vadra said he had already left out photographs that carried political slogans. He said his proposal was approved on 30 June 2025 and described the show’s themes as choice, control and unity, and that he had shared a layout with the venue on 15 October. He said the venue told him on 21 October that the layout was not legible, and that he was never told each artwork would be reviewed one by one.

The 26-year-old’s show mixes wildlife, abstract images and photographs taken over the last six months of public protests in Delhi, which he says he shot as a participant as much as an observer. The Hindustan Times reported that some of the protest images show police detaining protesters, and one shows his uncle, Rahul Gandhi, in a crowd. His Instagram post called the removed content the bulk of the show; the Hindustan Times quoted him putting it at half of the artworks, while he gave The Indian Express the figure of 74 out of 105.

How Congress leaders and the venue have responded

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra called the move ridiculous and said it muzzled the voice of young people across the country, according to the news agency Press Trust of India (PTI). “Today it’s him, tomorrow it will be another artist,” she said. Congress MP Pawan Khera, who heads the party’s media department, wrote on X that the photographs only documented protests and that none was derogatory or inflammatory.

The other side has not been heard yet. The Indian Express said officials at Bikaner House did not respond immediately to its request for comment, and The Hindu said the Resident Commissioner of Bikaner House, Rohit Kumar, did not answer its calls or messages. No written statement from the venue has been made public.

Why the protest photos are sensitive now

The images come from a tense period in Delhi. Opposition parties have been leading protests demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the electoral process, and calling for changes made under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls to be withdrawn, the Hindustan Times reported. Two leaders linked to the protests were released from custody this week, as NewsPlainly reported in our story on Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka.

What happens to the Raihan Vadra exhibition now

The remaining works stay open to the public until 25 October. Raihan Vadra said on Instagram that he would show the entire collection, including the removed protest photographs, at another venue soon, though he has not named one. Whether Bikaner House explains its decision, or responds to the claim that the proposal had been cleared months earlier, is the open question. His full account is in The Indian Express interview.