Going, going cheap: But not everyone wants a piece of Modi

[caption id=“attachment_1002621” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Perhaps Mr Modi could go and spin a little cotton at Sabarmati ashram. Some personally handwoven handkerchief sets for the next auction and the sky’s the limit. Asssociated Press[/caption] If you wanted some NaMo memorabilia before it got too pricey (aka Mr Modi moves to New Delhi) you might have just missed your big chance. The exhibition-cum-auction of Modi-bilia just ended in Rajkot. According to the Indian Express it got a “tepid response.” No word on the next one yet. 1146 articles were up for auction. But only 130 went under the hammer and the collection stood at around Rs 10 lakh. Comparisons are odious but over in Kolkata, Mamata-behn managed to earn over Rs 50 lakh from her art show at Kolkata’s Town Hall this year. The smallest paintings went for Rs 1.5 lakh. At her 2012 show the asking price had started at Rs 50,000. Industrialists might be lukewarm to her development model but they all lined up for her art with The Times of India reporting that the likes of the Jalans, Pauls, Goenkas and Budhias bought multiple paintings. After her thumping panchayat victory, Didi’s artwork will surely double in value again though their artistic quality will remain the same. While her acolytes like the painter Suvaprasanna are happy to compare her to that other unschooled painter, Rabindranath Tagore, more objective observers are less gushing. “Occasionally, there is even a splash or splodge of pigment that’s confident,” is about as much as Ruchir Joshi could manage to say about Didi’s artwork in his book Poribortan. But she sells. Sadly, the 40,000 people who visited the Modi exhibition in Rajkot didn’t show much interest in the 575 shawls, 50 turbans, idols of gods and goddesses and a photograph of the Mahabat Makbara monument that were up for grabs. A sword gifted to Modi in 2011 did notch up Rs 20,000 against the opening bid of Rs 2000 which might say more about the average Modi-fan’s fighting spirit than the sword’s workmanship. Turbans are also popular with collectors though there was no word whether the notorious skull cap that Mr Modi refused to wear during his sadbhavana fast was on the auction block as well. Though it looks suspiciously like it, this is not NaMo’s version of an American-style garage sale as part of his house-cleaning before he plans the Big Move. Modi apparently gets so many gifts from his fans, he auctions off treasures from his Tosha Khana at regular intervals in different parts of the state according to the Times of India. The proceeds benefit girl child education in his state. In 2011 Sachin Tendulkar donated his 2003 cricket World Cup t-shirt to Modi to help raise money for his “Save the Girl Child” program. During the last financial year the ever popular chief minister received 8040 gifts according to DeshGujarat . The President of India, according to Rashtrapati Bhavan sources , only got 74 in his first year in office. However Modi might be envious of some of Pranab Mukherjee’s booty. It includes a metal lion (take that, Lion of Gujarat), a silver box of saffron and some yartsa guenbub, a Tibetan caterpillar fungus also used as an aphrodisiac. But in a democracy numbers matter. And Mr Modi is clearly way ahead of the competition in this regard. And he has a big heart as well. DeshGujarat reveals that Modi is not a hoarder and only kept about 40 of the gifts he received. The lucky gifts include a pencil gifted by a child during a school enrollment drive and a shawl presented by Morari Bapu and Vivekananda’s photo frame. A replica of the birthplace of Dr Ambedkar was not so lucky and ended up on the auction block. It’s surprising the Congress has not yet made an issue about what the gifts Narendra Modi decided NOT to keep say about his politics. But for anyone out there laboriously weaving a shawl or carving a miniature sandalwood chariot for Narendra Modi this is bad news. The great leader doesn’t keep the gifts that are showered on him with such love. To add insult to injury, if the Rajkot auction is any indication, the gifts don’t fetch too high a price. However if you must present something to Mr Modi that will also hold its own in its post-Modi afterlife, it looks like a sword is the way to go. The girl children of Gujarat will thank you for it. However if Mr Modi is really serious about raising money, he should take a leaf out of Mamata’s book. She promised to use her paintings to fund her panchayat election campaigns and we all know how resoundingly well Trinamool did in those elections. Mamata gets the big bucks because she actually paints the pictures herself instead of recycling other people’s crap.It’s the unique personal touch that Didi is famous for. Admittedly, not everyone can paint like Mamata and only Bengalis go around saying things like “My child has a knack for painting”. But Mr Modi could go and spin a little cotton at Sabarmati ashram. Some personally handwoven handkerchief sets for the next auction and the sky’s the limit.