Koh-I-Noor

[Bharat Gupt]

Shrinivas Tilak wrote:

>     This week, eighteen Rajya Sabha members in India have done just
> that--they have sponsored a motion asking Britain that the diamond be
> returned to India.

One of the strong campaigners for this has been Kuldeep Nayar.
I suspect that KN has done this to ensure that really nothing gets done.
Why else shall he lobby so strongly for a piece of carbon ?

Lets face it, is Kohinoor a wonder of Indian art or culture ?

Can it be equated with the Elgin marbles... pieces of miraculous art
from one of the holiest temples of Hellas.

I wonder why Nayar and his fellow  MPs did not consult the people of India
before starting on this request as early as his tenure as the Indian HComm.

Did he and other MP's debate about what are the cultural
priorites of the cultured Indians in asking things
back from Britain ?  Surely such restorations can  be
symbolic and very few,  undertaken only for the sake of international goodwill.

To ask for Kohinoor, that can be claimed by a few other nations besides
India, is a devious way promoting ill-will.

Another example of bureacratic ignorance compounded by legislative hubris !!!
best,

Bharat Gupt,  Associate Professor, Delhi University
PO Box 8518, Ashok Vihar, Delhi 110052  INDIA
tel 91-11-724 1490, fax 741-5658, email: bharatgupt at vsnl.com
homepage: http://personal.vsnl.com/bharatgupt