Rahul Gandhi unfurls Tricolour at Srinagar's Lal Chowk

Srinagar: A week after the Congress said that hoisting the national flag at Lal Chowk is "part of RSS agenda", party leader Rahul Gandhi, in a sudden change of plan, unfurled the Tricolour at the city centre in Srinagar on Sunday.

The original plan was to hoist the national flag at the party's Srinagar office on Monday.

Rahul unfurled the Tricolour here exactly 75 years after his great-grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru did so for the first time at Lal Chowk, where he also promised the right of self-determination to the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

"By hoisting the Tricolour at Lal Chowk, the promise made to India was fulfilled today," Rahul tweeted. "Hate will lose, love will always win. There will be a new dawn of hope in India".

The Congress attributed the sudden change in its plan to the last-minute "permission" granted by the administration. "Originally, the plan was that we will unfurl the national flag on Monday, which is the last day of the Bharat Jodo Yatra. We didn't get permission for Lal Chowk for January 30," said Jairam Ramesh, Congress leader in charge of communications.

"On Saturday, after discussion with the state officials, they conceded our demand but for the Sunday. They said you can unfurl the national flag on January 29. So, we changed our programme at the last minute and Rahul Gandhi has unfurled the national flag at Lal Chowk, something that was done for the first time 75 years ago by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru," he said.