Saving Mahatma’s memorabilia

— Saikh Md Sabah Al-Ahmed
The entire Indian nation, especially those infused with a sense of mawkish sentimentality, heaved a big sigh of relief on the evening of March 5 when India’s flamboyant liquor and airline baron Vijay Mallya, sealed the deal at New York’s Antiquorum Auctioneers, where a collection of some rare memorabilia of our beloved and revered Bapu went under the hammer. These rare personal memorabilia of Mahatma Gandhi included his trademark iconic steel-rimmed round eyeglasses, a 1910 silver Zenith pocket watch, a pair of chappals (sandals), a brass katora fl-(bowl), a brass thah l (plata) sults of his blood test from Irwin Hospital in New Delhi and some letters of authenticity. Tony Bedi, who represented Mallya at the auction, bought these rare Gandhi items for $1.8 million or a whopping Rs 9.3 crore. The items were put up for auction by Los Angeles based James Otis, an avid collector of Gandhi memorabilia and also an ardent Gandhi disciple, who by profession was a documentary filmmaker and by nature, a self-proclaimed pacifist, having even worked for organisations like UNESCO and Amnesty International.

Kudos to Vijay Mallya for bringing our national heritage home and restoring its rightful legacy. Had it not been for Mallya, this nation of over a billion would have hopelessly watched these rare belongings of the Mahatma being bought by someone else, and would have never reached Indian shores, where it rightfully belonged. Interestingly, Mallya had also bought the legendary sword of Tipu Sultan for around 1.5 crore from a London auction in September 2003, after the sword was taken away, following the British assault on Srirangapatnam on May 4, 1799, which ultimately saw the end of Tipu Sultan. Mallya’s sudden decision of stealthily jumping into the auction and then asserting that he was “bringing Gandhi’s memorabilia to Delhi and would be presenting these to the government” was indeed an act of Gandhigiri.

The rare memorabilia of Gandhi, although technically speaking, have been bought by Vijay Mallya, yet they may be caught in legal tangle. The Indian Consulate in New York had said that Mallya cannot get immediate possession of the items. The US Justice Department had asked the auction house to hold back the items for two weeks, pending a resolution between the new owner and the US and Indian governments. The American Justice Department order follows a Delhi High Court injunction that stayed the auction. The Delhi High Court stay order came on the Indian Government’s plea to stop auction.

The entire episode of Gandhi’s memorabilia going under the hammer was mired in utter suspense right from the very beginning, when it picked up steam, owing to intense media glare. But the suspense was finally over when Chairman of the auction house Robert Maron announced that despite some news reports that James Otis had decided to pull out, the auction would eventually proceed. Mallya finally pocketed these rare items after a day of high drama as the auction went ahead despite protests in India and an injunction from Delhi High Court seeking to halt the sale with James Otis himself trying to pull out at the last minute.

Prior to the auction, James Otis had placed some tough and near impossible conditions before the Indian government, if at all it wanted him to take the items off the hammer. Otis had indicated that he will pull the items out and sell them to the Indian government at the list price if India agrees to a substantial increase in its health budget over the next decade. He also wanted India to sponsor a 78-nation nonviolence tour on Mahatma Gandhi, which will travel for a period of 10 years. He even reiterated that, “I would give the items to the Indian government if it increases the GDP from I per cent to 5 per cent, which would help India’s poor.”

The Indian government on its part was already riding on the crest of euphoria, having claimed to have secured the rare items. Union Culture Minister Ambika Soni had stated after the successful procurement that, “The Government has acquired five personal possessions of Mahatma Gandhi at an auction in New York through the services of Vijay Mallya.” She also claimed, “The government could not have bid for Gandhi’s possessions directly due to a court stay order in India.” But in sharp contrast to Soni’s remarks, Vijay Mallya was displeased at the government’s claim that it had arranged for procurement of Mahatma Gandhi’s personal items through him, saying his participation in the auction was purely “a personal decision and a matter of pride”. He added, “Neither before nor after the auction, was anybody in the government in touch with me.”

All said and done, these rare Gandhi memorabilia, seem to have been safely done and dusted by the Indian government, or Vijay Mallya to be precise, at least for the moment, provided these items are not caught in the quagmire of any legal wrangles for too long, including the possibility of a civil litigation by James Otis against the auction house. This apart, Tushar Gandhi, the great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi had lamented, “The Indian government had adopted a totally amateurish attitude towards procuring these items” and aptly deserves a wrap on its knuckles for its inept and insipid handling of such an issue where national sentiments were at stake.

Finally, as both the initial suspense and the eventual euphoria over these rare Gandhi memorabilia ultimately die down, this nation of over a billion is left with certain soul-searching questions. What would have been the attitude of the American government, if, hypothetically speaking, some Indian collector would have been in possession of Abraham’s Lincoln’s Waltham William Ellery model pocket watch? Will these rare Gandhi items be safe in India, when till today, the Indian government remains clueless about the stolen memorabilia of Rabindranath Tagore, including his prized 1913 Nobel medal, from Visva Bharati University in Shantiniketan on March 24, 2004? Will the mere import of these rare Gandhi items, necessarily inculcate the hallowed values of “Gandhism” amongst today’s youth? Aren’t the national coffers of sovereign India enough to procure the items of someone, without whose contribution this nation wouldn’t have attained its present sovereign status at all? This is a reality check that India as a nation needs to undertake without much ado to reaffirm and reassert our lost reverence for our beloved Bapu. ASSAM TRIBUNE