The Government has planned a host of programmes to celebrate “Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav” and “Har Ghar Tiranga” drive even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday changed his display picture on social media accounts to tricolour and urged people to do the same.
As part of the “Har Ghar Tiranga” drive, the Union Culture Ministry will organise a Tiranga bike rally from the Red Fort to Parliament Wednesday for MPs of all parties. A “Run for Azadi” half marathon will also be organised here on September 25 for employees of the Central and State Governments, according to a Personnel Ministry order.
Addressing the media persons, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prahlad Joshi stressed Tiranga rally was a Culture Ministry programme and not of his party, and urged MPs of all parties to join the exercise at 8.30 am.
At the BJP parliamentary party meeting, BJP president JP Nadda outlined a host of exercises for the party members to undertake during a week-long programme starting from August 9 in the run up to August 15.
He asked party members to take out “prabhat pheri” (morning procession) between 9 am and 11 am to publicise the “Har Ghar Tiranga” campaign Its youth wing would carry out Tiranga yatra on bikes across the country, Joshi said.
Under the campaign, the Prime Minister urged everyone to hoist or display the national flag at their house between August 13 and 15.
Party members will also undertake “prabhat pheri” down to the booth level between August 11 and 13, playing “Raghupati raghav raja Ram”, Mahatma Gandhi’s favourite devotional song, or India’s national song “Vande mataram”, he said.
In the meeting Nadda asked BJP MPs to ensure their presence in the 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.
In the meeting, the BJP president took note of the party’s good performance in recent elections, including the local polls in Madhya Pradesh.
The party MPs are set to meet again on August 5 for a briefing ahead of the vice presidential poll on August 6.
Party members were also asked to make the national flag the profile picture on their social media accounts following Modi’s call to people to this effect in his Mann ki Baat broadcast on Sunday.
In his Mann ki Baat radio broadcast on Sunday, Modi had said the “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.
Modi changed his display picture on social media accounts to the national flag and urged people to do the same as part of a collective movement to celebrate the Tricolour. Other senior BJP leaders, including Union Ministers and Chief Ministers, followed suit.
Union Ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari and Chief Ministers Yogi Adityanath and Shivraj Singh Chouhan were among a large number of party members who switched their profile pictures on Twitter to the national flag.
“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.
Modi also paid homage to the Pingali Venkayya, who had designed the flag, on his birth anniversary.
“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,” he said.