The Indian National Congress and several party leaders on Wednesday changed their profile picture of their social media accounts to India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru holding a tricolour as part of a collective movement to celebrate the tricolour ahead of India’s 75th Independence Day.
This comes a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi put ‘Tiranga’ as the profile picture of his social media accounts and urged others to do the same.
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While senior BJP leaders immediately followed suit, Congress joined the movement on Wednesday with a twist.
“The tricolour is in our hearts, it is in our veins as blood. On December 31, 1929, Pandit Nehru while hoisting the tricolour on the banks of river Ravi said, ‘Now the tricolour has been hoisted, it should not be bowed’,” the official Twitter handle of Congress party posted in Hindi.
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“Let us all make this tricolour our identity, which gives the message of undivided unity of the country. Jai Hind”, it added.
Congress leader and Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi, along with Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Jairam Ramesh and other party leaders changed their display pictures to Nehru with a tricolour in hand.
“And that too in Khadi,” Jairam Ramesh said in a tweet, in an apparent swipe at the Centre’s decision to allow manufacturing and sale of the tricolour made of polyester.
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In another veiled dig at Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS), he said, “We are putting the DP of our leader Nehru with the tricolour in his hands. But the Prime Minister’s message does not seem to have reached his family. Will those who did not hoist the flag in their headquarters in Nagpur for 52 years listen to the Prime Minister?”
Senior party functionary Pawan Khera shared the screenshots of profile pictures of the RSS and its chief Mohan Bhagwat.
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On Sunday, PM Modi said that the celebrations of the 75 years of independence, promoted by the government as ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’, is turning into a mass movement and urged people to put ‘Tiranga’ as the profile picture of their social media accounts between August 2 and 15.
“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,” he said in a tweet on Tuesday.