The Indian government says it will do everything possible to bring back the personal effects of Mahatma Gandhi which are to be auctioned in New York.
Culture Minister Ambika Soni said the government would bid for the items if they were unable to stop the auction.
Antiquorum Auctioneers are to sell Gandhi’s iconic round glasses, a pocket watch, leather sandals and some other items in a few hours time.
The planned auction has led to an uproar in India.
The government has been under immense pressure to bring back the items.
‘Whatever it takes’
"If we cannot stop the auction which is gross commercialisation of Mahatma Gandhi’s personal items, we will bid for them," Ms Soni told a press conference in Delhi.
"We will do whatever it takes to get Gandhi’s memorabilia back to India," she said.
Ms Soni said the prime minister wanted Mahatma Gandhi’s items back by all means possible and he had authorised the government to bid for them.
She said India was in touch with the US and international legal agencies to get the articles back.
The government has also rejected conditions set by James Otis – the US-based collector and owner of the items to be auctioned – for stopping the memorabilia from going under the hammer.
Mr Otis had said he would withdraw the items from the auction and donate them to India if the Indian government allocated five percent of its budgetary spending for the poor.
"Gandhiji himself would not have agreed to these conditions," junior foreign minister Anand Sharma said.
Mr Sharma appealed to Mr Otis to withdraw the items from the auction.
"Gandhiji’s memory and values should not be violated, the auction should not take place," he said.
‘Very dear’
Gandhi’s spectacles, which he once said gave him "the vision to free India", a pair of his sandals and his pocket watch are among the five items for sale, which also include a plate and a bowl used by Gandhi.
"The Zenith watch that will be sold was gifted to him by Indira [Gandhi], who became the prime minister of India later on, and it was very dear to Bapu [Gandhi]," Gandhi’s great grandson Tushar Gandhi, told the BBC.
"The plate and the bowl are the ones from which he took his last meal before he was murdered.
"The sandals he made with his own hands, and he gifted them to a British army officer who had taken photographs during his halt in Aden when he was on his way to London to attend the round table conference [to discuss India’s independence]," Mr Gandhi explained.
Mahatma Gandhi is widely revered in India as the leader of the independence movement against British rule.