NO BAN IS FINAL
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s son Raihan recently made headlines when the Rajasthan state government banned him from exhibiting photographs of the youth protests during his exhibition at Bikaner House. The exhibition is enticingly titled, “No Idea is Final”. Since the premises belong to the BJPled state government, there is a political slant to the story. The denial happened at the last minute when young Raihan was told to take down his pictures of the youth protest, but allowed to exhibit his series of tiger photographs (which, incidentally, are exceptional).
Bikaner House claims that the pictures were political, Raihan says that the photographs showed a youth movement, and that he was even asked to take down two pictures of the Tiranga. He refused to comply with the second half, stating that while he complied with the order, “the only two photographs I did not take down were of the Tiranga. I will not take down a picture of the Indian National Flag.” Since it involved a member of the Gandhi-Nehru family the issue soon snowballed, with TV cameras making a beeline for Bikaner House.
Apart from one statement on X speaking in favour of freedom of speech, Priyanka let her son fend for himself. And he did so with remarkable poise and maturity, stating simply that his cause was artistic freedom and not politics. Though he did point out that, in a sense, all art is political. This does make you wonder though, did the BJP hand him a political moment on a platter—or a canvas?
As a footnote, the enterprising Rajiv Shukla, who was there at the preview, quipped saying, “You should have held the exhibition at Himachal Bhawan instead” (as that state has a Congress government). But as Raihan pointed out, what he liked about Bikaner House was that it drew an organic art crowd. And thanks to the ban, a lot of political attention too.
SHE BELONGS
There was much excitement within Congress circles (and beyond) about Sonia Gandhi’s debut on Instagram. Her first post shows her receiving an advance copy of her memoir, which will be launched on 10 November. The book has generated a great deal of interest as this is the first time India’s most private public face will be speaking out.
She has done interviews earlier, but these date back to nearly three decades. Her first interviews were to Vir Sanghvi and Rajiv Shukla (who was then anchoring a popular interview based show, “Rubaru”). Later, Shekhar Gupta did one with her at Anand Bhavan. However, once UPA came to power, she did not give any interviews except for a series of five-minute “tic-tacs” to women reporters when the Women Reservations Bill came up (during UPA).
Moreover, it is not the timing of Sonia Gandhi’s Insta debut, but the timing of the book that really is the key. I recall there was some chatter about her memoir mid2024. Was the book supposed to be out soon after the Lok Sabha poll results when the BJP did not do as well as it had expected? However, soon after that the party managed to sweep all the Assembly elections and the Modi government got back its mojo.
Thereafter, one did not hear anything more about Sonia Gandhi’s book, till the announcement of its publication on 18 August 2026. This was not even a month after the July protests led by the CJP and supported by Gen Z, that put the BJP on the backfoot.
It is clear that, politically, we are at a turning point, with the Modi government facing its strongest challenge in the last 12 years. On the other hand, Rahul Gandhi seems to have come into his own. One barometer of the change in public mood was the very positive reaction to the announcement of Sonia’s memoir. The news was announced on X (formerly Twitter) where the BJP has the upper hand, but even there the goodwill just poured in. If there was ever a right time for Sonia to tell her story, it is now.
SPECIAL SESSION SOON?
Delhi is abuzz with rumours about a special session of Parliament to pass the Delimitation Bill as the Monsoon session has not been prorogued as yet. At a recent interaction with editors, Home Minister Amit Shah exuded a great deal of confidence claiming that he had the numbers. The I.N.D.I.A bloc, however, is on guard, knowing all too well that the said numbers would come from within its ranks. The targets seem to be the NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) and the DMK.
So far, both parties have played their role in taking on the government on the Gyanesh Kumar issue. Supriya Sule has even issued a statement in favour of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s son Raihan when the Rajasthan government prevented him from exhibiting photographs of the street protest at his exhibition in Bikaner House. Which makes one wonder, where is the BJP’s confidence coming from? Because they do seem fairly certain of pushing the said bill through.
The post Cool Breeze appeared first on Read.