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Maharashtra to buy Ambedkar house in London
The Maharashtra government has
decided to buy the house in London where B.R. Ambedkar lived in the
1920s, and convert it into a memorial-cum-museum, an official said here
Saturday.
Maharashtra Education Minister Vinod Tawde, currently
in London for a global academic conference, finalised the deal and made
the announcement.
According to an official, the deal for the 2050
sq. feet home, which was up for sale for the past few months, is
expected to cost around Rs.40 crore.
The residential property,
where the architect of the Indian constitution, lived as a student of
the London School of Economics in 1921-1922, is situated at 10, King
Henry's Road, NW3, London.
"By April, we plan to complete all the
formalities and throw it open as a permanent museum-cum-memorial for
the public," Tawde said in a statement from London.
"When
we heard that the home was up for sale through an estate agent, I spoke
with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who is in Davos and he
immediately gave the green signal," Tawde said.
The minister then
met representatives of the Federation of Ambedkarites & Buddhist
Organisations (FABO) and other Indian officials to finalise the deal for
the historic home.
A meeting was held at India House, the Indian
diplomatic mission in the UK, in the presence of Indian High
Commissioner Ranjan Mathai, FABO's (Mrs) Santosh Das and other officials
and it was decided to buy the property.
He added that the
memorial would inform the people about Ambedkar's life, works and
contribution to the country's freedom struggle and subsequent public
life.
Around six months ago the house, where a plaque on its
historic importance is also displayed, had been put up for auction by
the owners.
The auction notice had created a furore among various
Dalit and Ambedkarite groups around the world who had demanded that the
state or central government intervene in the matter as the home had a
historical significance for all Indians.
Tawde said all
formalities shall be completed over the next couple of months and it
will be inaugurated as an Ambedkar Memorial April 14, coinciding with
Ambedkar's 124th birth anniversary.
Meanwhile, political parties
across the spectrum hailed the state government's move, terming it as
the right decision to preserve an important chapter in Indian history.
However,
Ambedkar's grandson Prakash Ambedkar earlier expressed his reservations
at the state government's proposal to buy the London property.
"Since
we are his legal heirs, the government should first consult us in the
matter," the Dalit leader and chief of the Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh,
had said when the state government first mooted the proposal to buy the
home around five months ago.