Friday, March 6, 2009
Drink for Mallya
I would request all the drinkers and even the teetotalers to have atleast one drink for India's liquor barron Vijay Mallya. After all he did what the what the governtment couldn't do. In a much talked about auction in New York, he paid $1.8 million to purchase some of Mahatma Gandhi's personal belongings. Its really appaling to see so much drama created for the belongings of a man who himself led a life of austerity. The reserved price for them was between $20,000-$30,000 but owing to the hype created in the media, the final price was $1.8 million. The items belonged to some James Otis, a Californian who is follower of Gandhian philosophy. Despite of him willing to pull out of the auctioning and the Indian government registering their reservations, the auctioning firm went ahead. Despite of Indian government going all the way to get Gandhi's personal items removed from the auctioning, they were finally put under the hammer. We could not stop a firm from getting the belongings of the father of our nation auctioned. Its really disgusting to see how much leverage India, the country of 1 billion people has in US.
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4 comments:
Yeah, the whole episode was a shame not to the country but to the government and the last I read Vijay Mallya was still trying to get the excise duties waived for these articles to be brought to India just like he has been trying that for the Tipu Sultan's Sword which is lying somewhere in a packed crate in US. I guess government would like to rush the affair this time since he intends to gift these articles to the government.
Well if Gandhiji would have been alive he would have never approved of Indian Govt. spending even a single pie on this. And Mr. Mallya, a liquor baron would do more favor to Gandhiji by helping people follow his ideals of teetotalism.
Well, if Gandhiji would have been alive, this situation would not have come at the first place but unfortunately it did. And under such circumstances when the prestige of the whole nation was at stake, I think it was right of Mallya to purchase the item. It is indeed true that such a huge amount could have been used for the welfare of the poor, but as you youself say sometimes, nation is greater than its people.
@Vatsheel
I can understand that Gandhiji would not have approved of this but do you think it would have been right to allow some people to create profit out of his belongings? Who knows how many hands his spectacles would have passed through over the years. It is not about upholding an ideology, it is about stopping the use of a name, that is synonymous with India's Independence struggle, for commercial benefit.
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