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Yahoo! My Yahoo! Mail More Yahoo! Services Account Options New User? Sign Up Sign In Help Yahoo! Search web search Home Singapore Asia Pacific World Business Entertainment Sports Technology Singapore Asia Pacific World Montblanc's $25,000 Gandhi pen sparks controversy By ERIKA KINETZ,AP Business Writer - Friday, October 2 Send IM Story Print MUMBAI, India – 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, just in time for the 140th anniversary of the birth of the Mahatma _ or "Great Soul" _ on Friday. The price? 17,000 euros ($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 Web site put it _ for a global luxury goods maker has left some Indians puzzled and others angry. "If he had seen this, he would have thrown it away," Amit Modi, secretary of the Sabarmati Ashram, which Gandhi opened 92 years ago, fumed to the Financial Times. "I cannot imagine why anybody has done this." A curious blogger for India's Mint newspaper peered at the engraving of Gandhi, bamboo stave in hand, in the pen's rhodium-plated nib and asked: "Where, really, was Gandhi in all this?" Oliver Goessler, Montblanc's regional director for India, Africa and the Middle East, says the answer is: Everywhere. "Whatever brings Gandhi and his ideas back to mind can only be good," he said by phone from Hamburg, Germany. Just 241 commemorative fountain pens will be sold _ a nod to the number of miles Gandhi walked in his famous 1930 "salt march," a mass protest against salt taxes levied by the British that dealt an early blow to their control over the subcontinent. The pens are hand-made, adorned with Gandhi's signature and a saffron-colored opal. They come with an eight-meter (26-foot) golden thread that can be wound around the pen to invoke the spindle Gandhi used to weave plain cotton cloth each day. The pens also come with a commemorative booklet of inspiring Gandhi quotes. "It's not an opulent pen. It's a writing instrument that's very pure," Goessler said. Montblanc has 16 boutiques across India, but this is their first product targeted at India's growing audience for luxury goods. Goessler said he didn't have initial sales figures but that demand for the pens in India has so far been "really spectacular." He said the idea to commemorate Bapu ("Father"), as Gandhi is affectionately known here, in a swish pen was born in India, not Europe. But, he added: "The name of Mahatma Gandhi, you have to be careful how you use it. That's why we linked it to two different charity initiatives." On Tuesday, Montblanc chief executive Lutz Bethge handed over a check for 100,000 euros ($145,666) to Gandhi's great grandson, Tushar Gandhi, for a foundation that works to improve child nutrition and education, Goessler said. Earlier this year, Tushar protested the sale of his great-grandfather's humble effects, including eyeglasses, worn sandals, and simple brass bowl, saying it was "immoral." The foundation will get an additional 10,000 to 50,000 rupees (($210 to $1,050) for each pen sold, Goessler said. Montblanc also took the unprecedented step of launching more affordable versions of the Gandhi pen. "When we talk about Gandhi, there has to be an edition that's more accessible," Goessler said. The cheaper line of 3,000 roller ball and fountain pens retails for 2,200 to 2,500 euros ($3,205 to $3,642). Even that is stratospherically out of reach for the vast majority of Indians, many of whom have been left out of India's economic boom. Over 450 million Indians struggle by on less than $1.25 a day. Recommend Send IM Story Print Related Articles Raiffeisen says filed suit to bankrupt Russian RBC Reuters - Friday, October 2 US STOCKS SNAPSHOT-Wall St slumps after manufacturing data Reuters - Friday, October 2 Bernanke, Rep. 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