Raihan Vadra showed 105 protest photographs in his exhibition “No Idea Is Final” at Bikaner House, only to be asked to pull 74 of them before it opened. The removal notice, signed by Deputy Resident Commissioner Manoj Singh, cited a breach of the venue’s booking policy, while a prior warning from Principal Resident Commissioner Rohit Kumar highlighted the timing as inappropriate for the images.
The photographs captured youth demonstrations across Delhi, including a March 11 Congress march to the Supreme Court, and featured two images of the Indian tricolour. Vadra refused to remove the flag shots initially, but Bikaner House staff eventually removed one of them when he left the premises.
The incident feeds into a broader wave of protests demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged voter‑list fraud. Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi’s brother, has led the Congress’s opposition to the BJP‑led government, and the protests have drawn in groups such as the Cockroach Janta Party.
Congress officials and spokesperson Pawan Khera decried the move as a sign of political censorship, arguing that the photographs merely documented public dissent and were not inflammatory. The Bikaner House, a state‑run venue under the BJP‑led Delhi administration, has not yet provided a formal explanation for the abrupt removal of almost half the exhibition.
The controversy has sparked calls within the Congress to review exhibition policies and to lodge a formal complaint with the state government, though no official action has yet been taken by the venue’s management.