00:00So my show, No Idea is Final, was supposed to start at 7 p.m. yesterday at Beacon Air
00:07House. 24 hours before that, I was approached by the Beacon Air House management and I was
00:17told that some of the pictures may be objectionable or against their policy. I said that I don't
00:25believe that they are, but I'm happy to have that discussion and they should get back to
00:30me in return as to what is the, which images, why, what are the objections. I did not hear
00:40back from them till around 11 a.m. the next day where the team came, saw the exhibit and
00:47then left. They even complimented me on some of the photographs.
00:56Then, at around 12.30, we got a call from the deputy resident commissioner saying that
01:04you have to remove these photos. 70 of all, 105 photos in the exhibit, you have to remove
01:11because they are against the policy. So I said, listen, please give it to me in writing. Again,
01:18I want an explanation and I want to know why you are removing each photo and what is the
01:22logic. And then I also said that, listen, if there is a problem with five, six images,
01:27you let me know. I'm happy to discuss them. We can replace those images. It is your venue after all.
01:36And I, I had anyways, after seeing their policy, I had anyways sectioned out and removed images that
01:43had overtly political slogans. You know, so none of the images had like, you know, any naras or
01:51maybe there were a few images which had political flags and a few images that had political leaders.
01:57So that was where I was happy to, you know, um, have a discussion. Um, but again, I was like,
02:05you have to give this to me in writing, you know? So I didn't hear from them again till about
02:10three
02:10o'clock when the principal resident commissioner came and he came and he said to me that, uh, he
02:16explained how the context of everything that was happening in Delhi with the protests, et cetera,
02:22is where, is what makes the artwork political and, um, that I have to remove them. I again told him
02:28also, sir, you please give this to me in writing. Um, and, um, I also said that, you know, again,
02:37if it's a question of four or five images, we can have that discussion. You let me know which are
02:42the
02:42ones that, you know, are, you feel are against your policy and, and, and then, you know, we can take
02:47it
02:47from there. Maybe we can replace those images. Um, at which point, uh, he said, let us discuss
02:55internally. The discuss internally came back to me and said, no, all these images have to be removed.
03:00Um, otherwise, and that's, this was at about three o'clock. He said, all these images have to be removed
03:05by 4 PM. Uh, otherwise, um, the show is canceled by 5 PM and the building will be sealed. So
03:13I said,
03:14sir, please give it to me in writing, um, which they did at about 3 20. I received an email
03:18thing
03:18by 4 PM removed the work. Um, so what we did was we flipped the work. So, um, the, that
03:26the picture
03:27you couldn't see, you could see the back of the frame and we left it on the wall because I
03:31was
03:31you know, I don't want people to come into an empty, empty space.
