Very recently the priceless belongings of the Father of our Nation were auctioned. While the Ministry of External Affairs "struggled" to "procure" the country's heritages, Vijay Mallya, made their job easy. He bought all the items for a whopping Rs 10 crore (USD 1.8 million).
The whole episode was a complete mockery of the Indian Government. The moment I saw this news item in the Telegraph I was amazed & asked myself "What are bapu's belongings doing with some James Otis guy in New York!!!" Somehow all the priceless items from our country seem to end up in some museum in some other country (Britain or Iran), be it the kohinoor or the peacock throne or the sword of Tipu Sultan.
Gandhi ji's belongings - his trademark round eyeglasses, a pair of worn leather sandals, an inexpensive pocket watch and a simple brass bowl and plate were consigned by Otis, a private American collector who obtained them from the descendants of the Gandhi family to Antiquorum Auctioneers. To add to the humor of the whole episode, the government went about claiming that Mallya took up this cause on their behest which was completely denied by the latter. Mallya said he had, in 2004, bought and brought to India the legendary Sword of Tipu Sultan and this time again he was working from his own consciousness.
Its high time the government acts and prevents such episodes of embarresment in the future.
4 comments:
very well written!
It sad to see the Government's answer to the press that they got Vijay Mallya to buy those. It was an attempt to save their face. The News channels also condemned that his belongings were bought by a Liquor baron, and Gandhiji was against Liquor.
There are even talks in Britian that they should sent the Kohinoor back to India, but I dont know any further development that followed.
@Hemal: You know what? the kohinoor is also waitin to fall into some like Mallya's kitty or may be the baron himself!!!u never know!
hey, sorry was busy with work so could not come back to you on this one. I read that news about Kohinoor, but what I read was that it will be returned to India and not to be sold.
I am wondering why you did not post for a long time? Are you too busy to post?
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