PM Modi uses Tiranga as profile picture, urges all to follow suit

New Delhi: Urging people to unfurl the National Flag at their homes between August 13 and August 15 as part of the Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday put the Tiranga, the Tricolour, as the display picture on his social media accounts.

Earlier, in his monthly radio broadcast Mann ki Baat, the PM had urged people to put the Tricolour as the profile picture of their social media accounts as India will be celebrating its 75th Independence Day this year.

Following the PM, many senior BJP leaders, including Union ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nirmala Sitharaman, Ashwini Vaishnaw, G, Kishan Reddy and BJP president J.P. Nadda changed their DPs.

"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," the PM tweeted.

Paying tribute to Pingali Venkayya, who had designed the flag, on his birth anniversary, the PM said, "Our nation will forever be indebted to him for his efforts of giving us the Tricolour, which we are very proud of. Taking strength and inspiration from the Tricolour, may we keep working for national progress."

The BJP is planning a host of activities ahead of Independence day. At the BJP parliamentary party meeting, Nadda listed a number of activities for the party members.

Briefing the media after the meeting, parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi said the culture ministry will be organising a Tiranga bike rally from the Red Fort to Parliament on Wednesday morning for MPs and appealed to MPs of all political parties to attend it.

During the meeting,  Nadda asked party members to take out "prabhat pheri" (morning procession) between 9 am and 11 am to publicise the "Har Ghar Tiranga" campaign and its youth wing to carry out "Tiranga yatra" on bikes across the country.

"Our National Flag is a symbol of our independence. In furtherance of the appeal by PM Narendra Modi, we have all decided to hoist our flag in every house from Aug 13th to 15th. I urge everyone to display our Tiranga on their social media accounts," tweeted  Nadda earlier in the day.

The BJP members will also undertake "prabhat pheri" at the booth level between August 11 and August 13, playing Mahatma Gandhi's favourite devotional song "Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram" or India's national song "Vande mataram".

Nadda asked the BJP MPs to ensure their presence in party programmes and called for working to strengthen the organisation during the week at booths where the BJP has not done well in recent polls.

The party will also be observing "Partition Horrors Remembrance Day" on August 14.  Modi had announced it last year in the memory of the struggles and sacrifices of people during the country's division, saying the pain of partition can never be forgotten.