Bids on Olympians’ gear, including Neeraj Chopra’s javelin and P.V. Sindhu’s badminton racket, reduced from highs of ₹9 crore-₹11 crore in the first week of the e-auction of mementos gifted to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to near the base prices of ₹80 lakh to ₹1 crore as on Wednesday.
The auction, the proceeds of which are supposed to go to the Namami Gange Mission, started on September 17, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birthday. A total of 1,330 mementos gifted to him were put on auction through website pmmementos.gov.in till October 7.
Bids disqualified
The equipment used by Olympic and Paralympic athletes and medal-winners had received bids of around ₹10 crore on day two of the auction. However, the amounts had been reduced after the Ministry disqualified bids that were found not to be genuine, a Culture Ministry official said.
On Wednesday, gold medallist Neeraj Chopra’s javelin was going for ₹5 crore, while it had received a bid of over ₹10 crore in the first week of the auction. Similarly, the badminton racket and bag of Ms. Sindhu, a bronze medal winner, had the price of ₹1.10 crore on Wednesday, down from ₹9 crore on September 18. Boxing gloves of bronze medallist Lovlina Boroghain were going for ₹80,00,100, or ₹100 over the base price of ₹80 lakh, on Wednesday, while it received a bid of ₹10 crore as on September 18.
With eight days to go for the auction to end, Culture Minister G. Kishan Reddy called on the public to participate. “Come forward to be a part of a national cause…,” he said in a tweet.
The Culture Ministry too shared several tweets from all its Twitter accounts promoting the e-auction. In a statement, the Ministry said ₹15.13 crore had been received from a similar auction in 2019.
