GANDHI PREPONED BHAGAT SINGH'S HANGING

Bhagat Singh's hanging and GandhiGandhi's role in Bhagat Singh's hanging has always been under a cloud. Most people think that Gandhi did not try for commutation of the sentence to the three revolutionaries. Gandhi supporters have been claiming that he tried to save their lives. But, the facts suggest otherwise. He actually was instrumental in getting the preponement of their hanging which was due on 24th March, 1931.

Gandhi got commuted the sentences of some persons connected with violent incidents of the 1942 Quit India Movement. But, for Bhagat Singh he secured preponement.
Given below are the excerpts from a book titled 'Indian National Congress - How Indian? How National?' published by the Research Unit for Political Economy.

Gandhi Exposed
To the youth of the nation, the Pact's[means Gandhi-Irwin Pact] silence on Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, and Rajguru, who were scheduled for execution later that month, seemed an even more dramatic betrayal. When confronted by hecklers after the hanging, Gandhi claimed "I pleaded with the Viceroy as best as I could. I brought all the persuasion at my command to bear on him."
The Mahatma's definition of truth was obviously elastic, or his memory poor. Here are Lord Irwin's own confidential minutes of his discussions with Gandhi on February 18, the second day of the talks:
"In conclusion, not connected with the above (talks), he mentioned the case of Bhagat Singh. He did not plead for the commutation (of the death sentence). But he did ask for the postponement in the present circumstances." (File No.5-45/1931 KW2, Home Department, Political Branch in the National Archives of India.)
..Herbert Emerson, Secretary to the Government of India at the time, and the man in whose name the Pact was actually issued, records
"...listening with amazement to Irwin and Gandhi after the agreement had been reached by them that Bhagat Singh must be executed, engaged in, a prolonged discussion not as between two statesmen on the political implication of terrorism, but as between two saints on the sanctity of human life."
However, Gandhi was terrified at the prospect of the inevitable public backlash. Irwin recorded in his memoirs:
"If the young man was hanged, said Mr. Gandhi, there was likelihood that he would become a national martyr and the general atmosphere would be seriously prejudiced."
An Under-the-Table Pact
So Gandhi decided not to tell the full truth to the public. He asked Irwin:
"Would your Excellency see any objection to, my saying that I tried for the young man's life? I said that I saw none, if he would also add that from my point of view he did not know what other course I could have taken. He thought for a moment, then finally agreed, and on that basis went to Karachi... and I was told that he was roughly received. But when he had opportunity he spoke in the sense agreed between us."
As the Pact created what Subhas Bose described as "an uproar", and as the date of both the hanging and the Karachi Congress drew closer, Gandhi grew nervous.
Irwin's minutes, of March 1931 from the same file quoted above, state that:
"As he (Gandhi) was leaving he asked me if he might mention the case of Bhagat Singh; that he had seen in the press the intimation of his execution for March 24. This was an unfortunate day as it coincided with the arrival of the new President (of the Congress) in Karachi and there would be much popular excitement. I told him that I had considered the case with most anxious care, but I could find no grounds on which I could justify to my conscience commuting the sentence..He appeared to appreciate the force of this argument and said no more."
Later, Gandhi changed his mind a little. The official History of the Indian National Congress states:
"Anyway Lord Irwin was unable to help in the matter, but undertook to secure a postponement of the execution till after the Karachi Congress. The Karachi session was to meet in the last week of March, but Gandhi himself stated to the Viceroy that if the boys should be hanged, they had better be hanged before the Congress, than after. The position of affairs in the country would be clear."
Irwin, it seems, granted a slight preponement. Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, and Rajguru were hanged on March 23, 1931, at 7.33 in the evening. When Gandhi arrived at Karachi for the Congress session, he was met by a Naujawan Bharat Sabha demonstration against him - a remarkable indication of what his reputation now was."
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From the above facts it is clear as daylight that Gandhi instead of trying for commutation of the sentences, actually asked for preponement which was granted to him. Where was his theory of non-violence when he was abetting in the hanging of the revolutionaries.