After Bikaner House Dispute Raihan Vadra’s Photography Exhibition To Open In Bengaluru On December 11

Raihan Vadra’s photography exhibition, “No Idea is Final”, will open on December 11 at the Bangalore International Centre in Bengaluru, Hindustan Times reported. The show comes weeks after an earlier display at New Delhi’s Bikaner House ran into a dispute over photographs that the venue wanted removed.

Raihan Vadra is the son of Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and businessman Robert Vadra. The report stated that the Bengaluru venue and opening date had already been set before the Delhi exhibition.

The new show comes after the Delhi exhibition was caught in a row last month, after Bikaner House objected to several images and warned that the exhibition could be cancelled if they were not taken down. Vadra has said many of those works will be shown in Bengaluru.

Bengaluru Plans

Vadra said the Bengaluru show had been planned before the Delhi exhibition.

“I was already taking the show to BIC and the dates were booked even before the Delhi exhibition,” the 26-year-old, according to the report.

He said he was still deciding which photographs to show and how many would be displayed at the Bangalore International Centre. “Since this is my first exhibition in Bengaluru, I want to show the range of works, and not just make it about the pieces that were taken down [by the Bikaner House management].”

Vadra confirmed that a significant number of the works to be displayed in Bengaluru will be those that were taken down in Delhi.

Delhi Exhibition Dispute

The Delhi show had 104 images of wildlife and street photography shot over four years. It was scheduled at New Delhi’s Bikaner House from October 22 to 25.

Hours before the preview on October 21, the venue asked Raihan Vadra to remove 74 photos. Many of those images were shot in the past six months and documented protests against the Election Commission of India in the Capital this year.

In a statement circulated at the opening, Vadra said the Bikaner House management “raised objections towards the ‘political nature’ of the protest images”. The statement added: “[They] informed me that I would have to remove all works deemed by [Rohit Kumar, the principal resident commissioner] to be political by 3.30pm today, failing which the show would stand cancelled.”

The management responded the next day. “Certain photographs displayed … (were) found to be inconsistent with the policy of the Bikaner House Management Society. Accordingly, their removal was requested.”

It added: “The exhibition and associated activities must comply with Bikaner House Management Society Policy. The photographs that are consistent with the Society’s policy have been continued to be displayed.”

Bikaner House is owned and managed by the Rajasthan government.

Vadra complied with the venue’s demand and removed the images. “I felt it was necessary to go ahead with the rest of the exhibition because of all the work that was put in not just by me but by those working with me,” he said.