A brass Buddha and a Tibetan prayer wheel from Sikkim now sit in the same online catalogue as a silver Lord Ram from Karnataka, as the eighth PM Mementoes e-auction gives citizens a chance to own a piece of gifts received by Prime Minister Narendra Modi from various states, an effort the culture ministry calls a “unifying force” for the country’s traditions.
The tradition goes back to Narendra Modi’s days as Gujarat CM. It turns ceremonial gifts given to an office into a public good. The idea was presented as a first from the beginning. The numbers show how far it has grown. The Sikkim pair show the craft behind the gifts. The Buddha is a finely crafted brass sculpture, presented to the Prime Minister by the Governor of Sikkim .
After he took the post in October 2001, the gifts he received were auctioned for Kanya Kelavani, a drive for girls’ education launched in 2003. As Prime Minister, he took the idea national in January 2019, when about 1,800 items went under the hammer at the National Gallery of Modern Art . Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said seven earlier editions sold 7,741 objects, raising about ₹ 52 crore, averaging roughly ₹ 67,000 per object.
Union culture minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said at the launch in New Delhi that the scheme rests on a simple principle that PM Modi believes “what the country has given him is not his to keep,” and that the gifts must therefore be returned to the people, with the proceeds going toward cleaning the Ganga. “It is the emotional and sentimental values attached to the gifts, which is immeasurable,” then Culture Minister Prahlad Singh Patel said at the 2019 launch, calling Modi the first Prime Minister to auction all the gifts he receives. This year’s 1,498 items are nearly 200 more than the “over 1,300” listed last year. The second piece is a tabletop prayer wheel, or Mani Khorlo, embossed with the mantra “Om Mani Padme Hum,” a chant central to Tibetan Buddhist practice.
A pencil sketch of the Prime Minister by a student from Rohini shows that a gift need not be grand to be included. The cause links the catalogue to the country’s geography. Namami Gange is the Union Government’s flagship programme for the conservation and rejuvenation of the Ganga and the protection of its fragile ecosystem. Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal, all among the larger contributors of gifts this year, lie along the river’s course.
The capital has its own set of 30 items, from two Delhi Metro models and the Ashtamangala, the eight auspicious symbols of Buddhism, to artwork on institutions such as St Stephen’s College, the Old Secretariat and the New Parliament Building.
