Indian tycoons on Friday jockeyed to demonstrate their allegiance to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi by bidding on a widely discussed item of clothing: the tailored suit Modi wore last month to meet US President Barack Obama.
The suit’s yellow pinstripes, upon closer examination, proved to be tiny lines of script spelling out Modi’s name.
After an afternoon of intense bidding, a diamond trader from Modi’s native state of Gujarat purchased the suit for 43.1 million rupees (US$693,234).
Photo: AFP
The proceeds of the auction, which included more than 450 gifts to Modi, are to benefit his campaign to clean the Ganges River.
During more than a decade as Gujarat’s chief minister, Modi regularly auctioned off gifts he had received, using the proceeds for social programs. However, this time the event also served to cauterize a political embarrassment.
Political rivals of Modi seized on the pinstripes, and the suit’s reportedly exorbitant cost, as evidence that he was narcissistic and out of touch with the concerns of the poor. Though a wealthy Gujarat businessman later said he had given the suit to Modi as a gift, some damage had been done.
Opposition politicians scoffed at Friday’s auction.
“It reeks of more arrogance,” Ajay Maken, a senior leader of the Indian National Congress Party, told the Times of India, dismissing the auction as “a damage control exercise.”
And there was no shortage of Modi fans willing to pay handsomely for the suit, and the aura of beneficence that would presumably accompany it. Real-estate developers, factory owners and a number of diamond merchants bid on the suit, which was displayed on a mannequin that resembled Modi.
One enthusiastic television newscaster described it as “the suit that wowed the fashion police.”
In the end it was Hitesh Patel who made the winning bid on behalf of his father, Lalji, who owns Dharmanandan Diamonds, who said later that he had expected to pay much more.
“We will keep the suit at our factory, and it will be a source of inspiration,” he told the BBC.
The elder Patel was nearly overcome, telling reporters that “this event gave me a chance to do something in the national interest.”
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number