London, July 14
A series of letters and postcards signed and autographed by Mahatma Gandhi were bought in an auction here today by two leading NRIs, who will present the precious documents to the government of India.

NRI entrepreneurs Sir Gulam Kaderbhoy Noon and Prof Nat Puri bid for the priceless letters and postcards almost for double the pre-sale estimates at London auctioner Sotheby’s.

A series of 29 letters and four autograph notes signed by Jawaharlal Nehru for friend Mridula Sarabhai, together with a signed document, a signed greeting card and 29 envelopes (estimated price 4,000-5,000 pounds or Rs 3.17-3.97 lakh) also sold for 8,750 pounds, but it was not known who was the buyer. Curry King Sir Noon told PTI he telephonically bid for the Gandhi articles and bought them for around £10,000.

The first lot comprised Gandhi’s three autographed letters to Maulana Abdul Bari, an Islamic scholar and leading figure in the Khilafat movement, in Urdu. The letters referred to Hindu-Muslim relations, including communal tension in Lucknow, their personal friendship and in one letter writing from prison with thanks for the gift of cotton for spinning.

Maulana Abdul Bari (1878-1926) worked closely with Gandhi from 1918 onwards.

The second lot comprised a piece of Khadi cloth signed by Gandhi and said to have been woven by him. The hand-woven white cotton piece (420x390mm) with a simple purple border was signed by Gandhi in Gujarati.

The cloth, which was a gift from Gandhi to South African-born actress Moira Lister, had an estimated price of £2,000-2,500 (Rs 1.59-1.99 lakh). Lister was a friend of Maharani of Jaipur Gayatri Devi.

The third lot consisted of two autographed postcards addressed to Hamid Ullah Afsar in Urdu, thanking him for his letters and advising him that previous letters had answered his questions. Asfar (1895-1974) was a prominent Urdu poet.

Sir Noon said he was extremely happy that he could get the treasured letters and postcards. “Mahatma Gandhi is an icon not only for India but for the world. His treasure should go back to India,” he said.

On two previous occasions, Sir Noon in partnership with Puri and Lord Raj Bagri had bought Gandhi’s letters that had gone under the hammer and handed them over to New Delhi.

On July 15, 1998, letters by the Mahatma to Islamic scholar Bari, were bought at a Sotheby’s auction by Sir Noon and carpet czar Nat Puri for 21,000 pounds. The letters were later presented to the then President K R Narayanan.

On another occasion, Sir Noon had bought another set of Gandhi documents along with Lord Bagri, former chairman of the London Metal Exchange, for 14,000 pounds at an auction. — PTI 

Washington, July 14
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton leaves for India on Thursday to start a “strategic dialogue”, as New Delhi hoped her visit will establish the future framework of bilateral engagement and priorities.

Ahead of the visit of US President Obama's chief diplomat, India's Ambassador to the US Meera Shankar said the "arc of proliferation" around India had irrevocably altered Indo-US collective security.

The intersection of proliferation and terrorism in India's neighbourhood presented a grave risk to all, Shankar said addressing the prestigious World Affairs Council in San Diego in California.

Clinton, who has said her visit would be the starting point of a new Indo-US relationship fondly calling it 3.0, spoke about the visit in response to a question during a US Agency for International Development Town Hall meeting.

She said the US would like to see the agenda of the strategic dialogue as specific as possible and that it would include issues like climate change and clean energy.

Shankar spoke of how India considered partnership with the US "important" for achieving its national development goals and said Clinton's visit would establish the framework of Indo-US engagement and priorities in the coming years.

Shankar also asserted that the landmark Indo-US civilian nuclear deal had transformed the relationship between the two countries and that the two nations were now in the process to implement it. — PTI 

Washington, July 14
Concealing it from the US Congress at the direction of former Vice-President Dick Cheney, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had developed elaborate plans to send small teams overseas to kill top Al-Qaida leaders, news reports said today.

The plan was however aborted by CIA director Leon Panetta after he learnt that the intelligence agency he now heads had concealed the programme from the US Congress for as many as eight years, The New York Times reported.

Although, the plan faced a lot of difficulties during these eight years, it was never shelved during the Bush administration, as it sought an alternative to killing terror suspects with missiles fired from drone aircrafts or seizing them overseas and imprisoning in secret CIA jails, The New York Times said.

The programme was designed in the frantic weeks after 9/11 attacks when President George W Bush, signed a secret order authorising the CIA to capture or kill operatives of the Al-Qaida around the world, the daily said. — PTI