A pair of Mahatma Gandhi’s distinctive round steel-rimmed spectacles were sold for a record £39,780 at an auction conducted Tuesday afternoon by Mullock’s at Ludlow in Shropshire.
The glasses, kept in their original metal case now corroded with age, with the original felt bearing the name of H. Cannam Optician 23, St. Aldate Street, Gloucester, were bought by Bapu while he was a student in England in the 1890s. They were expected to sell for £10,000-£15,000.
The auction house didn’t disclose the buyer’s identity, saying the bid was received on the telephone.
Gandhi’s wooden charkha, which he used during his 1931 London visit for the second Round Table Conference, sold for £30,420, double the estimated £10,000-£15,000.
***
Vodafone sends govt notice, to seek arbitration
Age Correspondent
New Delhi, April 17
Vodafone on Tuesday served a notice to the Centre threatening to drag it to international arbitration under the India-Neth-erlands bilateral investment treaty if the government didn’t change the Finance Bill proposal to amend the Income-Tax Act with retrospective effect.
“The notice has been delivered today to the Prime Minister (Dr Manmohan Singh), who sent a letter to (British Prime Minister) Gordon Brown in February 2010 assuring him Vodafone would have the full protection of the law,” Vodafone said. The notice was also served on the ministers for finance, law and communications.