By NNN-Bernama,
London : Indian government has not decided yet where it will keep Mahatma Gandhi’s memorabilia, including some rare letters written by him, which will be received by President of India Pratibha Patil from members of Indian community here on Wednesday during her ongoing four-day state visit, the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported.
The decision about where to place them is to be taken by the Ministry of Human Resource Development but so far there is no final word on whether the memorabilia — the letters and a piece of Khadi cloth woven by the Mahatma — will be kept in the National Gandhi Museum or Rashtrapati Bhavan.
On the same question, the President told reporters accompanying her on board her special aircraft that “These items will be taken to India with full honour…The decision on where to keep them will be taken later).”
The President said that receiving these items would be a “high point” of her visit to the United Kingdom.
Leading NRI entrepreneurs Sir Gulam K Noon and Prof Nat Puri, who had bought these articles in an auction here in July, will hand them over to Patil at a function in India House here Wednesday.
The rare articles comprise three letters written in Urdu by Gandhi to Maulana Abdul Bari, an Islamic scholar and a leading figure in the ‘Khilafat’ movement.
The letters referred to the Hindu-Muslim relations, including communal tension in Lucknow, and to the personal friendship of the Mahatma and Maulana.