NCP (SP) accuses RSS-BJP of ‘theatrics’ over Tiranga Yatras, questions its record on tricolour

The opposition Nationalist Congress Party (SP) in Maharashtra on Thursday accused the RSS-BJP combine of turning the ongoing Tiranga Yatras into political theatre and alleged that the ruling alliance was attempting to "stage-manage" nationalism ahead of Independence Day.

NCP (SP) spokesperson Mahesh Tapase, addressing a press conference in Mumbai, questioned the BJP and RSS's recent emphasis on Tiranga campaigns and said patriotism could not be reduced to public displays for cameras.

"The BJP and its parent organisation the RSS has turned Tiranga Yatras into a photo opportunity, lecturing the rest of the country on patriotism. But patriotism is not a costume you put on once a year for the cameras. It has a history, and history does not lie," he said.

Tapase particularly questioned the RSS's historical relationship with the national flag. He claimed that the organisation did not regularly hoist the tricolour at its Nagpur headquarters for 52 years after Independence.

"The RSS hoisted the national flag at its headquarters just twice in the early years - on August 15, 1947, and January 26, 1950. After that, for 52 long years, the tricolour did not fly at the RSS headquarters. It was forcibly hoisted in 2001 by three young activists of the Rashtrapremi Yuva Dal for which the RSS filed a police case against them. It took a court case and public embarrassment before the RSS finally began hoisting the flag on its own (at headquarters)," he stated.

Historical accounts confirm that the tricolour was not regularly displayed at the RSS headquarters for decades, although the circumstances surrounding the 2001 incident and the subsequent adoption of regular flag-hoisting have been the subject of political debate.

Tapase also questioned the RSS's role during India's freedom struggle and cited the organisation's ideological positions on nationalism and the national flag.

"From 1925, when the RSS was founded, until 1947, the organisation did not join a single campaign related to the freedom struggle -- not the Civil Disobedience Movement, not the Quit India Movement of 1942. While the likes of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhas Chandra Bose, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel were in British jails?" he said.

He also referred to former RSS chief M S Golwalkar's views on nationalism and questioned whether the issue would be addressed by current RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat during his Independence Day interaction with Gen Z.

"Will (current RSS chief) Mohan Bhagwat ji will talk about this in his Independence Day dialogue with Gen Z?" Tapase asked.

The NCP (SP) leader said the national flag belonged equally to all sections of Indian society and rejected what he described as an attempt by the BJP-RSS to claim exclusive ownership of patriotism.

"You cannot stay away from the freedom struggle and then, a hundred years later, claim love for the movement. The tricolour belongs to every Indian who fought, sacrificed, and died for it - from the Congress to the socialists, to the revolutionaries, to the communists. It does not belong to those who once called it inauspicious," he added.

The BJP has organised Tiranga Yatras across the country ahead of Independence Day as part of its campaign around the national flag. The criticism from NCP (SP) comes amid a broader political debate over the use of nationalist symbolism by political parties and organisations. Recent opposition criticism has also targeted the RSS and BJP over the nationwide 'Har Ghar Tiranga' campaign.