As Gandhi paper goes on sale tomorrow, Trust says it’s ours

NEW DELHI, JULY 1: With Christie’s gearing for the auction on Tuesday of Mahatma Gandhi’s “last” handwritten article on Hindu-Muslim unity and the Government planning to join the bidding through the Indian Council of Cultural Relations despite reservations by experts, the Trust which Gandhi willed in 1940 as the rightful heir of his writings and published/unpublished documents has now stepped forward to stake claim to the document.

Against the idea of the Government joining the bidding process, the Navjivan Trust says it’s open to legal recourse though it may be “tricky” in this case.

Speaking to The Indian Express from Ahmedabad, Jitendra Desai, Managing Director of the Navjivan Trust, said: “The present case, as it is not a letter to someone, but an article subsequently published, is exactly like the Kalyanam papers.”

(V Kalyanam, Gandhi’s personal secretary, was involved in a controversy some years ago over allegations that he had attempted to sell some of the Mahatma’s handwritten memorabilia. A Swami in Hawaii put up the Kalyanam collection in the auction market for Rs 8 crore and in January 1998, L M Singhvi, then High Commissioner in London, retrieved the rare manuscripts. Bu two days ago, Kalyanam told The Indian Express that he had written several times to the authorities about the Gandhi manuscripts he had but “no Government evinced any interest to get back the treasure”.)

Desai says legal recourse may be “tricky” this time as the document being auctioned “has been produced by an Austrian citizen, perhaps a lawyer”. “Legal action earlier was easy as Kalyanam was an Indian, but if the Government is okay with legal action, we will go along,” he said.

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