Barrister MK Gandhi held surprises right from the beginning leaving the Magistrate startled when he declared his profession as 'Farmer and Weaver' to pleading guilty at the first call to suggesting the Judge to resign if he found the prevailing law 'evil' to finally thanking the Judge for doing his duty as called upon by the law.
The strongest argument in favour of the prosecution at that moment was, that if the government does not prosecute Gandhi, they may never be able to prosecute him afterwards; for the spread of his mischievous propaganda during the following few months was anticipated to 'advance beyond an academic stage and affect the India Army.'
However, on the contrary, it was a political blunder.
What was intended as a strategic attempt to curb the national movement in fact, backfired.
Judge Broomfield: 'And I should like to say in doing so that if the course of events in India should make it possible for the Government to reduce the period and release you, no one will be better pleased than I'.
Gandhi: 'So far as the sentence itself is concerned, I certainly consider that it is as light as any judge would inflict on me, and so far as the whole proceedings are concerned, I must say that I could not have expected greater courtesy'.
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