The sculptor, Ramchandra Sharma, now in his 80s, has nothing to say on the controversy but just remembers the doctor as a family member.

However, Sethi's citation in the Magsaysay award mentions how the craftsman whom he called masterji worked closely with the doctor and how Sethi believed that doctors should set aside their ego and share their medical knowledge with the artisans and work for the service of society.

Mehta tries to tone down his rhetoric against Sethi to recall that the doctor was a great surgeon and had fixed his own limbs which were damaged in a car accident. All I have to say that his contribution was great as far as the technical side is concerned but zero on the social side.

"It is the society (MVSS) that has been propagating the limbs among the poor in the country and abroad. But the entire credit went to the doctor. He was even awarded for his so-called achievements for society even though he did not see a single patient in the last 25 years of his life," says Mehta.

But aside of the controversy, the focus on the Jaipur foot has also taken away emphasis on the other great legacy of Dr Sethi, the polyurethane callipers which he developed for polio afflicted children. It liberated millions of children from the metal strapped heavy callipers, says Ramachandran.

An Indian UN peacekeeping soldier adjusts prosthetic limbs at his camp in the village of Ibl al-Saqi in south Lebanon. The Indian UN contingent concluded the Jaipur Foot project that provided artificial limbs to Lebanese victims of cluster bombs.