Mumbai: The beautiful bungalow on Malabar Hill where Dr Homi Bhabha, the founder of India’s nuclear energy programme, lived was auctioned off on Wednesday by the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA) for Rs3.72 billion (Dh226 million).
The property fetched Rs1.15 billion more than the reserve price of Rs2.57 billion. The identity of the winning bidder has not been revealed.
The house went under the hammer despite objections and a lawsuit filed by employees of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Department of Atomic Energy and others, who argued that the iconic home of India’s renowned scientist should be turned into a museum. A Public Interest Litigation was filed in the court and even an online petition tried to garner nationwide support.
Those opposed to the sale argued that a museum dedicated to the former scientist, who died in a plane crash 48 years ago, would inspire future generations.
Even the Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan told the legislative council last week that he would write to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who heads the atomic energy department, to request that the property be devoted to the nuclear scientist as a museum.
However, NCPA chairman K. Suntook said that such sentiments “were misplaced” and that Dr Bhabha was only a part owner of the property.
After his death, the property “devolved solely upon his brother Jamshed who bequeathed it absolutely to the NCPA by his will, which has since been probated.”
Jamshed Bhabha who was a patron of the arts died in 2007 aged 93. He had not only willed the property to the NCPA but also paintings, jewellery, artefacts and furniture.
Suntook was unhappy over the long-standing opposition to the auction of the home.
The Times of India quoted him as saying, “When one person wants to give private property to another, how can someone else interfere? This was the sole property of Dr Jamshed Bhabha and he left it to the institution he nurtured (NCPA). We don’t understand this misplaced sympathy for creating a museum. The right place to do it would be the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. Dr Homi Bhabha himself would have been the first one to say this money should go towards the promotion of arts and culture.”
The nuclear scientist was himself a lover of the arts and many of the institutions that he was involved with, including the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and BARC, have walls adorned with paintings done by the masters — mostly chosen by him.
His home, a sprawling colonial bungalow, in the posh area of Malabar Hill is close to Hanging Gardens, offers a stunning view of the sea. It has a built-up area of 13,953 sq feet on a plot measuring 17,150 sq ft.
