Many organisations fervently appealed to Mahatma Gandhi to save the life of Bhagat Singh. The Naujawan Bharat Sabha, Aruna Asaf Ali, all the known radical revolutionaries, pleaded with Mahatma Gandhi to save Bhagat Singh and his associates Sukhdev and Rajguru.
The Gandhi-Irwin talks were on and political observers were confident that a word from Gandhi will certainly commute hanging to life imprisonment.
The historical records of the dialogue between Gandhi and Irwin in the series of crucial meetings that took place pretty close to the hanging of Bhagat Singh reveal a dismal picture.
Mahatma Gandhi spoke for everyone and every issue but did not utter a single word to bargain for Bhagat Singh's life. Hence his statement after the hanging of martyr Bhagat Singh, ‘‘the Congress made many attempts to save the lives of Bhagat Singh and his two associates’’, is not a substantiated fact.
Historian Dr Rajiv Lochan whose major research work revolves around Mahatma Gandhi puts this whole historical perspective in the following observations: ‘‘From all events and records available it is quite obvious that Gandhiji perceived both Subhas Chander Bose and Bhagat Singh as potential threats to his own highly acclaimed position".
Monday, 19 May 2008
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