A flag on every rooftop sounds simple — until you remember there was a time ordinary Indians had to think twice before hoisting one. On Sunday, 9 August 2026, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath sharpened that contrast in a pointed post on X, crediting Prime Minister Narendra Modi with giving 140 crore Indians the freedom to fly the tricolour above their homes — and drawing a direct line to what he called the struggles of the Congress era.

In his post, CM Yogi wrote: 'Kांग्रेस के समय में घर पर तिरंगा लगाने के लिए लड़ाई लड़नी पड़ती थी' — 'During the Congress era, one had to fight to hoist the tricolour at home' — before crediting Modi with ending that restriction for every citizen in the country.

The flag code shift that changed the rules

The legal backdrop matters here. The Flag Code of India was amended in 2002 to allow private citizens to display the national flag on their premises on any day of the year — a departure from earlier rules that had confined public flag-hoisting largely to official occasions. Subsequent amendments under the Modi government further eased restrictions, including permitting machine-made polyester flags, which made the tricolour more accessible and affordable for ordinary households.

The Har Ghar Tiranga campaign, launched as part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav — India's 75th independence anniversary celebrations beginning 2021 — became the most visible expression of this policy direction, encouraging every Indian household to display the flag around Independence Day. The campaign drew participation from hundreds of millions of citizens and became a recurring fixture on the national calendar.

BJP's patriotism frame and the Congress counter-narrative

Yogi Adityanath's post is squarely within a well-worn BJP rhetorical pattern: positioning the party as the restorer of national pride after decades of perceived Congress-era restraint. The framing — that citizens once had to 'fight' for the right to fly their own flag — is a recurring motif in BJP political communication, particularly around Independence Day and Republic Day.

The Indian National Congress, which governed India for the majority of the post-independence decades, has consistently pushed back on this characterisation, arguing that the flag's dignity, not its restriction, was the intent of earlier regulations. The political argument over who 'owns' the tricolour has become a durable feature of India's culture-war landscape.

With Independence Day days away, expect the Har Ghar Tiranga messaging to intensify — and the opposition's counter-narrative to sharpen right alongside it.