Tiranga selfies cross 58 mn, grow every minute amid I-Day festivity

The three are among over 58.5 million people to have uploaded their selfies with the Indian national flag on the Har Ghar Tiranga website, with the government changing phone caller tunes on Monday to encourage more people to do the same.

There’s Prashant Verma, posing on the route to Kedarnath; Dhriti Sharma in her balcony donning a tricolour cap and carrying two flags; and Sayyed Toufiq Sayyes posing with the Tricolour at his home.

(HT PHOTO)

The three are among over 58.5 million people to have uploaded their selfies with the Indian national flag on the Har Ghar Tiranga website, with the government changing phone caller tunes on Monday to encourage more people to do the same.

“Our aim is to run it throughout the day to promote the Har Ghar Tiranga movement and encourage people to upload selfies with the flag,” said a culture ministry official, who asked not to be named. And so, anyone calling anyone else, across networks on Monday listened to a voice exhorting them to participate in the movement.

The selfies include that of Union home minister Amit Shah, actors Amitabh Bachchan, Rajnikanth and Anupam Kher and cricketers Sachin Tendulkar and Rohit Sharma.

And judging by their sheer numbers, the campaign was a resounding success. Indeed, celebrations (and the national flag) were everywhere on Monday — on the cycles of those exercising in the morning; on the bikes of ubiquitous delivery people; and in cars that jammed Delhi’s central areas on Monday evening.

The Union government’s Har Ghar Tiranga campaign aimed to have flags displayed across 200 million households between August 13 and 15 to commemorate 75 years of independence; nearly 200 manufacturers, including many medium and small enterprises and self-help groups, made the flags.

On March 12, 2021, the government began a 75-week countdown to the 75th anniversary of Independence from Sabarmati Ashram, which was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Prime Minister urged everyone to turn Har Ghar Tiranga into a mass movement.

In a tweet, PM Modi said the movement, an initiative of the ministry of culture to mark ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’ celebrations for India’s 75th year of independence, would help “deepen our connect with the national flag.”

“This year, when we are marking Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, let us strengthen the Har Ghar Tiranga Movement. Hoist the Tricolour or display it in your homes between 13th and 15th August. This movement will deepen our connect with the national flag,” he wrote on the micro-blogging site on July 22.