India News | Robert Vadra, Congress MPs Back Raihan Vadra's Claim That Bikaner House Asked Him to Remove Delhi Protest Photos from Exhibition
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. In a Facebook post, Robert Vadra shared a statement by his son, who alleged that the management had objected to photographs depicting protests by young people in Delhi and had also instructed him to remove two images featuring the Indian Tricolour.
New Delhi [India], October 22 (ANI): Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's husban Robert Vadra has taken on the management of Bikaner House and shared a statement posted by his son Raihan which had alleged that the establishment had asked him to removed photographs of the Delhi Protests from his exhibition.
Congress RS MP Pawan Khera also took on the government alleging that it felt threatned by even photographs of the protests in Delhi.
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"When even the Tricolour isn’t safe from the censor’s scissors, perhaps the problem isn’t the art. It’s the regime. Just hours before @raihanrvadra was to open his art show ‘No Idea Is Final’ 74 artworks - nearly half the exhibition - were taken down for being “political”, by the Bikaner House. The photographs merely documented protests, and not one was derogatory or inflammatory. So what exactly was the offence? 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. Imagine a government so threatened by ideas that not just protests, but even photographs of protests - and the Tricolour itself - have become intolerable," he said.
Congress MP Karti Chidambaram also condemned the alleged censorship of the art exhibition, terming the administration's behaviour "obtuse" and "churlish."
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Chidambaram on X wrote, "Absolutely churlish & obtuse behaviour by the establishment which controls Bikaner House."
The Indian Youth Congress (IYC) Legal Cell echoed similar sentiments.
In a post on X, the IYC Legal Cell stated, "IYC Legal Cell's tweet: YOU CAN CENSOR THE FRAME. NOT THE TRUTH. Saheb dara hua hai (sir is scared)."
Raihan Vadra had on Wednesday alleged that the management of Bikaner House had objected to photographs depicting protests by young people in Delhi and had also instructed him to remove two images featuring the Indian Tricolour.
"Five hours ago, the management of Bikaner House compelled me to remove most of the artworks from my exhibition, 'No Idea Is Final,' which is scheduled to open this evening at 7 PM. The images in question depicted protests carried out by young people in Delhi. Evidently, the management found the content of these images 'objectionable.' They also instructed me to remove two images featuring the Tricolour," the statement read.
Raihan said he had refused to remove the images featuring the national flag and that the exhibition would proceed in a limited capacity for the time being.
"I have refused to do so; I will not remove the image of the Indian flag. For now, the exhibition will proceed in a limited capacity, but I will look for an alternative venue where I can display the entire collection of photographs related to the protests," the post read.
The exhibition, titled 'No Idea Is Final', was scheduled to open at 7 pm on Thursday. (ANI)
(The above story is verified and authored by ANI staff, ANI is South Asia's leading multimedia news agency with over 100 bureaus in India, South Asia and across the globe. ANI brings the latest news on Politics and Current Affairs in India & around the World, Sports, Health, Fitness, Entertainment, & News. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)