Patil to return gifts taken to family museum

Mumbai: Former Indian president Pratibha Patil, who had unleashed a controversy at the end of her tenure early this year by taking away 155 gift items that she had received during her foreign tours for a museum run by her family in Maharashtra, will return “all the artefacts presently on loan” by June 15, 2013.

Replying to a query raised under the Right to Information Act, the Rashtrapati Bhavan (President’s Office) said: “An MoU was signed on 15th June 2012 between Rashtrapati Bhavan and the Vidya Bharti Shaikshnik Mandal, Amravati, for display of 155 artefacts/mementos on a purely temporary basis, which in any case, cease to be operative with effect from 15th June 2013 and all the artifacts presently on loan shall be returned to the Rashtrapati Bhavan Museum thereafter”.

The query was raised last August 3 by Pune-based activist Vinita Deshmukh.

Saurabh Vijay, the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) of the President’s Secretariat, has however, refused to divulge the list of artefacts loaned to Patil’s family-run Museum at Amravati in east Maharashtra.

Vijay also denied that Patil had made a request to the President’s Office to allow her to borrow gift items for display in the Amravati museum. “No such requests have been made by any former President of India. It is, however, stated that in the past, 36 artefacts were handed over during the Presidency of Dr A.P.J Abdul Kalam for being displayed in the Brahmos Centre in New Delhi,” the CPIO stated in his reply dated September 6.

Asked how many gift items are in the Tosha Khana (treasury) of the President’s office, the CPIO said: “As per our records, there are about 2,500 gifts in Tosha Khana of the President’s secretariat and as regards the value of these items, no such records are available in Art Section”.

Vijay also said there are no rules governing gift received by the President of India.

“No such rules and regulations are available for loaning of gifts items received by the President of India,” he said.