Prime Minister Modi has launched ‘Har Ghar Tiranga’ campaign. He has said that under the Amrit Mahotsav, tricolor is being organized in every house from August 13 to 15. Under this, on Tuesday, he changed the DPs of his social media accounts and put the tricolor in its place. Along with this, the Prime Minister wrote on his accounts like Facebook, Twitter, “It is a special 2nd August today! At a time when we are marking Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, our nation is all set for ‘Har Ghar Tiranga’, a collective movement to celebrate our Tricolour. I have changed the DP on my social media pages and urge you all to do the same.”
After his request, members of the cabinet like Home Minister Amit Shah, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman changed the DP, but the Twitter handle of BJP’s parent organization RSS did not show such a change. Opponents took aim at this. Opposition leaders taunted the Prime Minister and even challenged him to change the DP of the RSS and its office bearers and show them by getting the tricolor installed.
Let us tell that the RSS has been in the news for its opinion on the tricolor. In fact, there have been allegations that the RSS did not even hoist the tricolor flag at its headquarters till a few years back. And the taunts that have been made on social media are about this.
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh has tweeted, “We are putting the DP of our leader Nehru with the tricolor in hand. But it seems that the message of the Prime Minister did not reach his family only. Those who did not hoist the flag in their head quarters in Nagpur for 52 years, will they listen to the Prime Minister?”
Another Congress leader Srinivas BV shared a screenshot of the official Twitter handle of the RSS, which does not show the tricolor, but the RSS and its saffron flag.
Jignesh Mevani has written, “If Modi ji really has a 56-inch chest, then he should show the tricolor in the DP of RSS and their office bearers.”
Dilip Mandal has tweeted tagging Prime Minister Modi and Mohan Bhagwat that Prime Minister Modi should change Bhagwat’s DP and get the tricolor installed.
These comments are coming on social media because the tricolor flag was not hoisted at the RSS headquarters itself before 2002. When some people hoisted the tricolor on Republic Day, they were prosecuted. In August 2013, a lower court in Nagpur had acquitted three accused convicted in a 2001 case. The three accused Baba Mendhe, Ramesh Kalmbe and Dilip Chatwani were allegedly involved in an attempt to hoist the tricolor flag on Republic Day by barging into the RSS headquarters at Reshmibagh in Nagpur on 26 January 2001.
The question is asked about this whether the tricolor was not the national flag of India before 2002 or if the RSS itself was not a patriot if it says on its own today’s criteria?
Shamsul Islam, an expert on RSS affairs, has written that in December 1929, in its Lahore session of the Congress, declaring Purna Swaraj as the national goal, people had called upon to hoist the tricolor flag on 26 January 1930 and celebrate Independence Day. In response to this, the then Sarsanchalak of RSS, Dr. Hedgewar, issued an order letter and instructed all the branches to worship the saffron flag as the national flag.
According to Shamsul Islam, on the eve of independence when preparations were going on to hoist the tricolor flag from the Red Fort in Delhi. The RSS had openly condemned the selection of the tricolor as the national flag in the August 14, 1947 edition of its English mouthpiece (Organiser).
The English newspaper of the RSS, ‘Organiser’ wrote in its edition of August 14, 1947, “Those who come to power because of fate are giving the tricolor in our hands, but Hindus will never accept it. Tricolor does not respect Hindus.” The mouthpiece of the Sangh further wrote, “Three colors of the tricolor is an evil in itself, and a three-coloured flag will certainly have a very bad psychological effect. It is harmful for the country.”