PM Modi appropriating flag that RSS disowned: Congress on 'Har Ghar Tiranga'

The Congress on Saturday, 10 August, took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his appeal to people for the "Har Ghar Tiranga" campaign, alleging that he is attempting to appropriate a national symbol that "RSS has long disowned".

Prime Minister Modi on Friday asked people to make the "Har Ghar Tiranga" campaign a memorable mass movement as he replaced his profile picture on X with the national flag and urged everyone to do the same.

Noting Modi's "Har Ghar Tiranga" campaign, Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh shared on X what he said is a "short history of the RSS's relationship with the Tiranga".

"M.S. Golwalkar, the second chief of the RSS, in his book Bunch of Thoughts had criticised the Congress' decision to adopt the Tricolour as the national flag, labelling it 'communal' and 'a case of drifting and imitating'," Ramesh said.

"The RSS mouthpiece, Organiser, in 1947 wrote that the Tricolour 'will never be respected and owned by Hindus. The word three is in itself an evil, and a flag having three colours will certainly produce a very bad psychological effect and is injurious to a country'," he said on X.

Ramesh further said that in 2015, the RSS said that "saffron should have been the only colour on the national flag as other colours represented a communal thought".

The RSS did not regularly hoist the Tiranga at its headquarters till 2001, when three youth forcibly hoisted the flag on its premises, a "crime" for which they were booked, he said.

"The non-biological Prime Minister is attempting to appropriate this national symbol, one that RSS has long disowned because his organisation has no history and symbols that India can accept as its own," Ramesh said.

Especially so on a day when India and the Indian National Congress could celebrate the anniversary of the Quit India Movement, in which the RSS refused to participate, he said.

In a post on X on Friday, Modi said, 'As this year's Independence Day approaches, let's again make Har Ghar Tiranga a memorable mass movement. I am changing my profile picture and I urge you all to join me in celebrating our Tricolour by doing the same. And yes, do share your selfies on harghartiranga.com.'