Well Gandhi was on auction this week…oops sorry Gandhi’s ‘legacy’ was on auction this week, His spectacles, his footwear and his bowl and plate. It was really unfortunate to see the Indian media make a spectacle of Gandhi’s spectacles.
The Father of the nation whom we remember two days in a year of which one of those dates is remembered solely for the reason that the wine shops are closed on that day. All of a sudden Gandhi mania has gripped the nation with TV channels playing good old patriotic songs and showing black and white images of Gandhi.
It took a clown like James Otis to rekindle our paternal patriotism. It was not the 2nd of October nor was it the 30th of January it was just the 5th of March when the so called legacy of Gandhi was about to come under the hammer. What an irony for a man of non violence to come under the hammer. Well it was not exactly the man but his belongings, his frail looking spectacles, his modest cutlery and his not so designer footwear were owned by an American who was holding the country of a billion sentimental fools and hundreds of sycophant politicians to ransom. The timing chosen by Otis was so perfect. The election dates were announced and no politician from left, right or centre would dare not support the Gandhian legacy.
So Mr. James Otis held a government to ransom, he dictated how our budget should look like and what our defence spending should be and the very fact that we were sending our representatives to discuss the draft of his proposal was making a mockery of the sovereignty of a nation.
He wanted India to value healthcare over defence expenses. If only I got a chance to auction off a presidential semen stained skirt of an intern this would be my statement to Mr Otis. ‘I wish America valued family values over wars on terror.’
But as I write this blog there has been a twist to the tale. Vijay Mallya the liquor and the aviation baron from India has bided successfully the Gandhi ‘valuables’ for 1.8 Mio USD. It was executed in true Gandhian spirit of non confrontation but had an American capitalistic overtone to it by simply buying it out for a price. It was an irony that a man who has seen zero revenue for a day every year on Gandhi’s birth anniversary had to rescue the Gandhi legacy.
As I always say… strange are the ways of the world. Cheers Mallya …
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