Click to play videoNew Delhi: For the last 35 years, Puran Singh Valmiki, an ex-Army man, has been making sure that Mahatma Gandhi's room at Birla House remains spotlessly clean.
Valmiki came to Delhi from Kolkata in 1971 and took up the responsibility of maintaining Bapu's room. Like other Gandhians, Valmiki, too, feels strongly about the Mahatma's last letter, which will go under the hammer on July 3 at the famous auction house Christie's in London.
“It's a matter of shame that a letter written by Bapu is being sold off in the market like this,” Valmiki said.
But while there is justified outrage over news of the auctioning of Gandhi's letter in London, similar manuscripts are kept under lock and key in the Capital.
It's ironical that even as the Indian government tries to win back the letter from Christie’s, there are several hundred original manuscripts that are kept at the Nehru Memorial Library at Teen Murti House that few know about and even fewer have access to.
But there are places where original letters written by the Mahatma have been put on display – Anand Bhavan in Allahbad, for example, has thousands of manuscripts written by Gandhi on display.
The Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad, too, has 34,000 letters, which run into 1.5 lakh pages.
“He (Gandhi) was a man of records and the Ashram authorities have tried to keep all this material intact,” Secretary of Sabarmati Ashram, Amrut Modi said.
There is no dearth of letters and other memorabilia belonging to Gandhi in our country but the interest in these treasures pretty much like Gandhi himself only gets enhanced on anniversaries or when controversies come knocking.
(With inputs from Meghdoot Sharon)
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