Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Friday hit out at the Bikaner House administration for removing photographs of Delhi protests from artist Raihan Vadra’s solo exhibition, describing the move as a “disgrace” that harms India’s global reputation as a democracy.
In a post on X, the Thiruvananthapuram MP argued that photographs depicting public protest demonstrations are visual documentations of events rather than political statements.
This is a disgrace at so many levels:
1. the images are of events that have already been burned into the public consciousness, and many of the photos would have echoed similar images that the public has already seen in the media and online;
2. While Bikaner House is free to have a policy against political stands, photographs of a protest demonstration are a depiction of an event and not political in themselves; they would almost certainly have passed muster had the matter been brought to a court as an issue of freedom of expression;
3. and worst of all, this censorship has driven one more nail into the coffin of India’s global reputation as a freedom-loving democracy.Anyway, the publicity this episode has received will have reached a far larger audience, in Delhi and worldwide, than the exhibition itself might have, had it been allowed to proceed undisturbed. I thank heavy-handed officials for giving a well-deserved boost to the photographic talents and career of @RaihanrVadra.
https://t.co/FmrbvMkNRr
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) October 23, 2026
Tharoor noted that the administrative action drove “one more nail into the coffin of India’s global reputation,” while ironically giving Vadra’s work far greater international publicity than the exhibition would have received on its own.
The controversy erupted after Raihan Vadra, son of Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, revealed that photos highlighting recent Delhi protests were taken down before the opening. The Bikaner House Management Society defended its action, stating that the decision was taken because the specific artworks violated its non-political venue policy, while allowing the rest of the exhibition to proceed.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also condemned the removal on Thursday, calling it a form of “muzzling” young artistic voices. Despite the row, the remaining collection of Raihan Vadra’s work remains on display for public viewing.
