Descendants of Dr Rajendra Prasad, the first President of India, are slowly losing hope of bringing his 18K pink gold Rolex Oyster Perpetual wristwatch back to India.
An email sent to Indian ambassador to Switzerland Chitra Narayanan by Dr Ashok Prasad, the great-grandson of the late President, requesting her to stall the auction of the watch at Sotheby’s in Switzerland and ensure investigations into how the watch, which they claim was stolen from their house in Patna in 1963, reached the auction house, is unanswered as yet.
“The ambassador has not even acknowledged my email to her and this has left me deeply pained and aggrieved. Other members of the family have sent letters in this regard to other leaders but the one who can actually take action in the matter is the Indian ambassador and she appears uninterested,” Dr Ashok Prasad said in a telephonic interview with this correspondent on Wednesday.
Dr Prasad, who lives in Gorakhpur, said some of his friends had suggested a legal option but that he was unsure about it. “In fact, despite being a non-practising lawyer myself, I am hesitant to approach the court because that would seem motivated. We certainly do not want the watch for ourselves, we want it to be kept in the museum that houses other belongings of Dr Rajendra Prasad in Patna,” he said. However, Dr Prasad added that he would be happy to provide supporting documents to any other lawyer.
He admitted that a PIL was perhaps needed to ensure that the heritage watch did not go under the hammer.
“It pains me to see the government’s indifference, but then seeing what happened to Mahatma Gandhi’s glasses, I am not very hopeful. If a country cannot appreciate the legacy of its leaders, so be it,” Dr Prasad said.
Dr Prasad says he was too young when Rajendra Prasad passed away in 1963 but vaguely remembers that the family was informed about the disappearance of the wristwatch from the museum at Sadaqat Ashram in Patna.