Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Saturday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of attempting to appropriate national flag which his ideological kin have long “disowned”, a day after Modi urged the countrymen to make Har Ghar Tiranga campaign a memorable mass movement.

Attacking the Prime Minister and RSS, Ramesh who is the Congress’ General Secretary in-charge of Communications in a post on X wrote, “The non biological PM has started another Har Ghar Tiranga campaign. This 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.”

Referring to RSS mouthpiece Organiser, he said, “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.”

In 2015, the RSS said that “saffron should have been the only colour on the national flag as other colours represented a communal thought”, he alleged.

“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,” Ramesh said.

The Congress leader further said, “The non-biological Prime Minister is attempting to appropriate this national symbol – one that his ideological kin have long disowned – because his organization has no history and symbols that India can accept as its own. 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.”

On Friday, the Prime Minister has urged citizens to change their profile picture having tricolour on social media platforms after he changed his profile picture to tricolour to celebrate Independence Day. He urged everyone to do same to make Har Ghar Tiranga campaign a memorable mass movement.

The Prime Minister also urged everyone to share selfie with Tiranga on harghartiranga.com.

The Har Ghar Tiranga campaign is part of the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, designed to bring the tricolour into homes across the nation.