New Delhi: The scheduled auction of a letter written by Mahatma Gandhi, possibly his last before his assassination, has sent the Indian government in a tizzy.
The letter, written on January 19, 1948, is part of a collection of manuscripts put up for auction at the famous auction house Christie's in London.
Meanwhile, a harried Indian Government has started the process of bidding for it. Sources in the Ministry of Cultural Affairs have said that they are assessing the cost to bid for Gandhi’s letter, which is expected to fetch £ 12,000 or Rs 10 lakh.
Great-grandson of the Mahatma, Tushar Gandhi, while speaking to CNN-IBN said, “There will be a conflict if it’s a private letter written to an individual. But if it is part of Harijan (a publication) then in his will he had bequeathed all of it to the Navjivan Trust and so they are the rightful owners. So, if Christie's is auctioning that letter then it is stolen property.”
But does India have a strong legal case to get the letter even before it goes up for auction?
“If it’s a letter written to an individual then we would have no option but to buy it but if it is stolen then we have time to challenge the ownership. Once we get the letter it would be returned to the Navjivan Trust and not the Government of India,” Tushar Gandhi said.
Regarding the value of the letter, Tushar Gandhi explained, “As far as I know the text is available in the collective works so it’s not as if we will lose out on some of his precious thoughts. But an actual handwritten letter by Bapu always has a lot of sentimental value.”
The last time a piece of Indian heritage went under the hammer, business tycoon Vijay Mallya coughed up Rs 4 crore for the Sword of Tipu Sultan and got it back to India.
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