Much ado about watches

Bengaluru: When it comes to public engagements, chief minister Siddaramaiah is not always a good timekeeper, given his hectic schedule.
However, it's not the CM, but his timekeeper that has been in the news for the past few days. The watch Siddaramaiah sports has become the talk of the town after JD(S) state president H D Kumaraswamy took a jibe at his socialist credentials, saying the timepiece costs Rs 70 lakh.
While all eyes are on the CM's watch - he apparently has a penchant for expensive ones - timepieces of two biggies have hogged headlines in the past.
In the early 1980s, a Rolex watch owned by CM Ibrahim, deputy chairman of the state planning board, which in those days had to be imported, became an issue on the floor of the house. As a minister in former CM R Gundu Rao's cabinet, he was gifted a Rolex by the UAE minister. Its value exceeded the price limit permitted under the Foreign Contributions Regulation Act, prompting fomer MLC AK Subbaiah to raise the issue, alleging the falcon insignia in it was meant for some kind of surveillance.
Ibrahim told TOI the watch, priced at Rs 1,000 at that time, was gifted to him by a sheikh in the UAE. "Subbaiah alleged the insignia was a passport for me to visit the UAE. It is common for friends in political circles to give gifts to each other. When Siddaramaiah went to New Delhi, he brought a sweater for me; former Jammu and Kashmir CM Farooq Abdullah gave me a shawl. Should politics be reduced to a level where gifts become news?'' he asked.
Over a decade later, former CM J H Patel accepting a watch from a Malaysian delegation became an issue. "The watch was worth Rs 5 lakh and it was handmade. My father passed it on to my brother," former MLA Mahima Patel said. Patel said public figures possessing costly watches is common. "When actor MH Ambareesh visited our house, he would flash his watch with pride saying it costs Rs 70 lakh," he added.
While Kumaraswamy has turned down Siddaramaiah's offer to buy his watch saying "he is not a scrap dealer", the timepiece continues to generate a debate.