PM to hoist tricolour record 7th time
When Prime Minister Manmohan Singh hoists the tricolour from the ramparts of Red Fort on Independence Day on Sunday, it will be a seven in a row for him with only Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and the late Indira Gandhi ahead of the economist-turned-politician.
Red Fort, a symbol of national integration, has seen Pandit Nehru, the first head of government, unfurling the tricolour 17 times, the most by any Indian Prime Minister. He is closely followed by Indira Gandhi in the second place getting the honour 16 times.
In the fourth place is Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, the BJP stalwart, who unfurled the tricolour six times. After the defeat of the National Democratic Alliance in the 2004 general elections the UPA came to power and Dr Manmohan Singh took the oath as Prime Minister of India on May 22, 2004.
Since then Dr Singh has hoisted the flag at Red Fort six times.
This Independence Day would be the seventh time that he would be hoisting the tricolour, putting him ahead of Mr Vajpayee.
Mr Vajpayee, who led the NDA from March 19, 1998 to May 22, 2004, unfurled the tricolour continuously for six times at the Red Fort. He became the PM on May 16, 1996 also but could not continue in the office more than 14 days and had to resign on June 1, 1996.
Pandit Nehru hoisted the flag for the first time at the Red Fort after India became independent of the British rule on August 15, 1947. After unfurling the flag, Nehru delivered his famous speech “Tryst with Destiny”.
Pandit Nehru remained in office till May 27, 1964 and hoisted the flag continuously for 17 times. Indira Gandhi assumed office in 1966 till March 24, 1977 and again from January 14, 1980 to October 31, 1984.
In her first tenure, she hoisted the flag at Red Fort continuously for 11 times followed by five times in her second tenure. In the history of independent India, Gulzarilal Nanda and Chandrasekhar are the only two Prime Ministers who did not get a chance to hoist the flag at the ramparts of Red Fort.
Lal Bahadur Shastri and Morarji Desai got a chance twice each to unfurl the tricolour, while Rajiv Gandhi and P V Narasimha Rao did it five times each. Rajiv remained in office from October 31, 1984 to December 1, 1989 while Rao was in office from June 21, 1991 to May 10, 1996.
Chaudhury Charan Singh, V.P. Singh, H.D. Deve Gowda and I.K. Gujral hoisted the flag once each during their tenure as PM.
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