Rahul Gandhi's nephew says he was forced to remove protest artwork from Delhi exhibition

NEW DELHI: The nephew of Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi said he was forced to remove several pieces of art documenting youth protests from his exhibition at a government-run cultural centre in New Delhi this week, as they were deemed “objectionable.”

Raihan Vadra, 26, the son of Gandhi’s sister, lawmaker Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, said the management at Bikaner House forced him to remove the artwork just hours before his exhibition opened on Wednesday.

Youth protests, led by the Cockroach Janta Party, have emerged as a major challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. A weeks-long sit-in forced the resignation of his education minister in July over exam paper leaks.

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Demonstrations erupted again this month, with opposition groups led by Gandhi at the forefront, that sought the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over a controversial revision of voter lists.

“The photos were of the youth protests in Delhi,” Vadra said in a post on social media. “Apparently the content is objectionable.”

He was also directed to remove two photographs of the Indian flag but he refused, he said.

The Bikaner House Management Society said it had requested the removal of “certain photographs” from the exhibition that were inconsistent with its policies, without elaborating.

“The photographs that are consistent with the society’s policy have been continued to be displayed,” it said in a statement on Thursday.

Bikaner House is owned by the western state of Rajasthan, which is ruled by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.

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Vadra’s exhibition, titled “No Idea is Final,” is listed on Bikaner House’s website, which describes it as a display of “photographs, multimedia artworks and installations” focused on themes including “nature, wildlife, abstract artworks, portraits, sculptures and immersive installations.”

“When someone with power becomes afraid of the expression of another, he doesn’t know it, but he has already lost the very power he is trying to protect,” his mother Priyanka said on social media on Thursday.

Modi’s government has faced criticism over its handling of protests this month, during which thousands of people were detained and parts of central Delhi were repeatedly locked down.