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Gandhi memorabilia auction draws fire

NEW DELHI, Feb. 24 (UPI) -- Plans to auction personal artifacts of India's independence leader Mohandas Gandhi are an insult to his and the nation's legacy, critics say.

The auction, to be March 4-5 in New York, includes Gandhi's distinctive metal-rimmed round spectacles, his leather sandals and pocket watch, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

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Opponents say that selling the few personal items of a man devoted to anti-materialism and the ascetic life to the highest bidder goes "totally against what Gandhiji stood for. It is as if we are trying to buy a piece of Gandhiji," said Varsha Das, director of the National Gandhi Museum in New Delhi, using a suffix with Gandhi's name as a mark of respect.

Gandhi, Das told the Post, "never believed in possessing things, except for a few things he wore. He was absolutely against materialism and commercialism."

Indian lawmakers, meanwhile, indicated astonishment at how such revered objects had landed in a foreign auction house. Antiquorum Auctioneers of New York declined to reveal to the newspaper any of the sellers' names.

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