Gandhinagar : Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pacesetter pinstripe fetched a palpitation-inducing Rs 4.31 crore, which will help cleanse the sinfully polluted Ganga.
The monogrammed suit, which had turned into the nation’s envy while remaining the owner’s pride, had caught the country’s fancy when the prime minister wore it to a meeting with US President Barack Obama in New Delhi recently.
Put up for auction in Surat along with 400 other gifts received by him after taking over as Prime Minister, the suit remained the focal point of attraction for the rich and the famous as well as the poor and the bunched.
If diamond traders and textile magnates chased it with singular aplomb, a nursery school teacher hurled a matching Rs 1.25 crore gauntlet through a 250 people collective of Rs 50,000 each contribution. Alas, the herculean effort proved a Lilliputian bid as the monetarily well- endowed raced ahead with their diamond-laced bids with one such gentleman, Hitesh Laljibhai Patel, making an offer of Rs 4.31 crores.
A cheating clock timed out a Rs 5 crore offer as well but it came just a trifle too late, and past the official closure time of 5 p.m. for the bidding.
The auction process began in Surat, the diamond capital, on Wednesday with a Rs 51 lakh bid by a former BJP corporator and had all manner of men, women and even kids streaming in, some drawn by mere curiosity, others by the urge to participate.
With a moony-eyed media ”fixated” on the auction, many moved in to pick up a bit of the action and television glare through garrulous statements of their bidding plans. If Komalkant Sharma, who bid Rs 1.41 crore, said he was moved by notions of piety, Mukesh Patel, who upped the ante to Rs 1.48 crore, described the suit as a diamond.
School teacher Rajesh Maheshwari, who stitched together a bid of Rs 1.25 crores by getting 250 people to chip in Rs 50,000 each, had an altogether different take on it.
”Extravagant marriages are more the norm than an exception these days. Imagine a young man in such a historic suit. Besides Rs 1000 for a selfie and the amount so collected could be utilized for children’s education”, he added.
Hitesh, who bagged the suit, however intends to keep it in a showcase in his office as a constant reminder of the noble cause he had served through bidding.
Speaking in Hindi, he said “We undertake an annual pilgrimage to Haridwar and Rishikesh and the state of the Ganga makes us sad. The moment we came to know that the proceeds would go to a noble cause after our heart, we decided to pitch in with pride,” said the owner of Dharmanandan Diamonds.
