From a
distance, it was just an ordinary dark blue Jodhpur style or
Bandhagala suit with gold coloured pinstripes. But as TV cameras took
up close up shots of India's prime minister, who was wearing this
suit, offering tea to US president in a special pendol erected for
the occasion on the lush green lawns of palatial Hyderabad House, the
viewers could see that they were no ordinary pinstripes. Each
pinstripe actually consisted of alphabets written in a vertical
line. On closer look, it was clear that prime minister' full name was
actually written in a vertical line, that looked like a pinstripe.
Without any doubt the suit was exclusive and something extraordinary,
though not something that was done for the first time; in March 2011
former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was photographed in a similar
suit.
There
was immediate speculation in media about the cost of this kind of
exclusive garment with someone coming up with a figure of 1 million
Rupees. Ordinary Indians just viewed the suit with awe and wonder but
for the media and opposition parties it was a ready fodder to hammer
the Government and the Prime minister and truly he was slammed by his
political opponents for wearing such an expensive suit. A Senior
opposition called the PM a "megalomaniac" for wearing such
a suit, and others accused the prime minister of being
"self-obsessed" and "narcissistic".
Very
little of this ruckus would have touched the imagination of a
Gujarat businessman Rameshkumar Bhikabhai, who had presented this
suit to the prime minister during January 2015. Bhikabhai was in
embarrassment and pain as he explained how he came about giving this
present to the PM, with whom he has a friendship for last 40 years
and considers him as his elder brother. Explaining his stand he said:
"I
am from Gujarat. I presented this suit to him ,when I attended the
recent Vibrant Gujarat Summit. I gave it while extending an
invitation to him to attend my son's wedding on January 26. I gave
this gift to my elder brother on behalf of my son. (
In India it is a tradition to present new clothes to all your close
relatives for wearing in a marriage) My son had this idea
of making this monogrammed suit. He said he wanted to give a surprise
to him. The price of Rs. 1 million quoted for the suit is not the
correct price. My son does not have the guts to spend that kind of
money.”
Bhikabhai
also clarified that the PM had told him there itself, that he would
wear the suit on the marriage day of his son and then give it away in
charity. His son's marriage happened to be on January 26th,
when by coincidence, US president was visiting India.
In
India, there is a strict code of conduct for ministers issued by the
home ministry, that clearly restrains both Union and state ministers
from accepting a valuable gift unless it is from a close relative.
The code stipulates that;
"A
minister should not accept valuable gifts except from close
relatives, and he or members of his family should not accept any
gifts at all from any person with whom he may have official
dealings,"
The
clause 4.2 of the code says that a minister may receive gifts during
his visits abroad or from foreign dignitaries in India. Such gifts
fall into two categories. The first include gifts that are of
symbolic nature, like a sword of honour or ceremonial robes, which
can be retained by the minister. However, the second category of
gifts, which are non-symbolic, may be retained only if their value is
less than Rs 5,000. Gifts of a higher value must be deposited in the
Toshakhana (government storehouse) or purchased by the recipient by
paying the difference between value of the item as assessed by
Toshakhana and Rs 5,000. Only household gifts retained by Toshakhana
such as carpets, paintings, furniture exceeding Rs 5,000 are kept in
Rashtrapati Bhavan, Prime Minister's House or Raj Bhavan as State
property.
It is
better to leave the matter to legal pundits to find out whether
accepting a garment falls in any of the above categories or not, let
us move on to something that has turned out to be even more news
worthy.
The
prime minister handed over the suit along with 450 other gifts
received by him during last nine months to municipality of Surat city
in Gujarat state for being disposed of in an auction, which began on
18th January 2015 and would continue for 3 days. This
city, famous for its diamond industry, is known to be wealthy.
The
suit surprisingly has received bids in the range of Rs. 12.5 to 14
Million from rich merchants of Gujarat. The total proceeds from the
auction would go in the Prime Minister's ambitious 'Clean Ganga
Mission'. The opposition parties however remain unconvinced and say
that this has nothing to do with Ganga river cleaning. It is a
“Damage Control Public Relations” because of criticism by them.
20th
February 2015
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