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HomeIndiaGovernanceNeeraj Chopra’s Olympic javelin, miniature Ram Mandir — PM Modi's gifts you...

Neeraj Chopra’s Olympic javelin, miniature Ram Mandir — PM Modi’s gifts you can bid on

Organised by the culture ministry, it is the third such auction to take place and is open till 7 October. Proceeds to go towards cleaning and conservation of River Ganga.

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New Delhi: The government is auctioning Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birthday presents from this year, which includes Neeraj Chopra’s javelin from the Tokyo Olympics, boxer Lovlina Borgohain’s gloves and shuttler P.V. Sindhu’s badminton racket.

In the e-auction, which is open till 7 October 2021, about 1,330 mementos are up for bids. The most expensive item is Chopra’s javelin, opening at Rs 1 crore, while the least is a small decorative elephant, base priced at Rs 200, according to a Press Information Bureau release.

Proceeds from the auction will go towards the Namami Gange project, a conservation mission aimed at the “effective abatement of pollution … and rejuvenation of National River Ganga”.

The Ministry of Culture had announced the list of items for auction on Twitter Friday, PM Modi’s 71st birthday.

Sports equipment used during the Tokyo Olympics and the paralympic athletes this year dominated the list.

Hockey sticks autographed by the men’s and women’s teams and the badminton rackets of paralympics gold medallist Pramod Bhagat and Krishna Nagar and silver medallist Suhas Yathiraj are among the items up for grabs. So is the javelin of gold medallist Sumit Antil and the sharp-shooting glasses of gold medallist Manish Narwal.

Price tags

According to the website www.pmmmentos.gov.in, bids for Neeraj Chopra’s javelin had gone up to Rs 10 crore by the time of publishing this report.

Silver medallist Lovlina Borgohain’s boxing gloves, opening bid for which was Rs 80 lakh, were also up to Rs 10 crore.

Sumit Antil’s javelin received a bid of Rs 3 crore while P.V. Sindhu’s racket was at Rs 2.02 crore. The hockey stick of the women’s team and an orange coloured Angavastra (cotton cloth) received a bid of Rs 1 crore each.

Items that received bids of more than Rs 50 lakh included Pramod Bhagat’s badminton racket (Rs 90 lakh), Krishna Nagar’s racket (Rs 90 lakh), the men’s hockey stick (Rs 80 lakh) and the discus of silver paralympics medallist Yogesh Khatuniya (Rs 50 lakh).

Items that are yet to get their first bid included stoles signed by the Tokyo Paralympics and Olympics team, priced at Rs 90 lakh each, and the fence used by Bhavani Devi, the first Indian woman ever to qualify for the Olympics, which was priced at Rs 60 lakh.

A T-shirt of shooter Manish Narwal, who won a gold medal at the paralympics, received a bid of Rs 20.1 lakh, while those of air rifle shooter Avani Lekhara and table tennis player Bhavina Patel — who won a gold and silver medal respectively at the 2020 Paralympics — were yet to receive bids. The base price for these items is Rs 15 lakh.

Other items on sale

Apart from the sporting goods, there were several other expensive items on the list. A wooden replica of the Kedarnath temple, a prominent pilgrimage site in Uttarakhand, is priced at Rs 10 lakh. The replica was gifted to the PM by the Uttarakhand’s Tourism Minister Satpal Maharaj.

A replica of the Badrinath temple has been priced at Rs 5 lakh.

A framed statue of the Tirupati Balaji received a bid of Rs 9 lakh, while a wooden replica of the Ayodhya Ram temple in a glass box received a bid of Rs 3 lakh. A Lord Krishna memento, gifted by UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, has received a bid of Rs 5 lakh.

All the prices are subject to change as the auction goes on till 7 October.

(Edited by Manasa Mohan)

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