Click to play videoNew Delhi: Just a day before Mahatma Gandhi's belongings went under the hammer in New York, the Indian Government has managed to buy itself some time. And coming to aid is the Delhi High Court order given to Navjeevan Trust, the custodian of all Gandhi properties that stays the New York auction.
The Government is only too relieved as it can now buy time to prevent Gandhian legacy from being auctioned.
Minister for Tourism and Culture, Ambika Soni said, "The stay has given us enough time to explore other options to bring back Gandhi's belongings to India.
Supreme Court Advocate, Sanjay Hegde added, "The US is not a party to any convention, which automatically recognises a foreign judgement. You have to file a complaint under the US law under the Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgements Act and then the local court out there would pass an order in the same terms as the Delhi High Court."
While the court order may have saved the day for the Indian Government, its earlier attempts with both the owner James Otis and the auction house had failed as both are intent upon going ahead with the auction.
"I have not spoken to the Government. They can e-mail us or contact me directly. They can either contact me or my auction house, they can either give some financial benefit or increase the deployment in the heath sector to upto 5 per cent of GDP. We cannot just give away these things on goodwill," Otis stated.
Watch Department Director, Antiquorum Auctioneers, Julien Scherer added, "I think they are very important, they are items that show up very rarely at auction. They have been in a private collection for the last 15 to 20 years, unknown to most of the public. So they are really new to the market."
While the court order may not ensure that Gandhi's belongings will come back to India, it has saved the Government of immediate embarrassment.
The Ministry of External Affairs has said that they are in touch with James Otis as well as the auction house. In fact Otis has even agreed to meet the Consul General of India in New York.
Meanwhile, Mahatma Gandhi's great-grandson Tushar Gandhi has called for quick Government action to ensure the return of his grandfather's belongings to India.
"Effectively only 12 hours remaining for us to do anything, to be able to ensure the return of the goods and I am emphasising on the return of Bapuji's belongings to India. Stopping the auction is one thing but ensuring what belongs to India comes back to India is a totally different ball game, and I hope the Government of India understands this difference and behaves in a manner where it will be guaranteed that those things will come back to India. What belongs to India, what belongs to the father of the nation comes back to India."
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