Montblanc’s Gandhi pen stirs controversy

October 03, 2009|Associated Press

MUMBAI - An incongruous billboard has appeared high above Mumbai’s slums: A thin Mohandas Gandhi, the ascetic father of India’s independence, sits wrapped in simple white cloth above the image of a fat Montblanc pen.

German luxury penmaker Montblanc International GMBH launched a limited-edition commemorative fountain pen in honor of Gandhi this week, in time for the 140th anniversary of the birth of the Mahatma - or “Great Soul’’ - yesterday.

The price? $24,763.

The decision to turn a man who shunned foreign-made products and pushed simple living to new extremes into a “brand ambassador’’ - as one local website put it - for a luxury goods maker has left some Indians puzzled and others angry.

One group filed suit Thursday to halt distribution.

“Mahatma Gandhi advocated a simple lifestyle,’’ said Dijo Kappen, who filed the suit and is managing trustee of the Center for Consumer Education in the southern state of Kerala. “He was, of course, a nationalist and, in the nature of the independence struggle, the only thing he promoted was Indian-made goods. It is a mockery of the great man and an insult to the nation . . . to use him as a poster boy.’’

Everywhere, said Oliver Goessler, a Montblanc regional director. Speaking by phone from Hamburg, Germany, he said, “Whatever brings Gandhi and his ideas back to mind can only be good.’’