78th I-Day: Modi becomes PM to hoist tricolour for third highest time

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday broke the record of his immediate predecessor Manmohan Singh by hoisting the national flag from the ramparts of the Red Fort for the 11th consecutive time. With this, Modi has become the prime minister to hoist the tricolour for the third highest time. The record lies with first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru who did the honours 17 times from 1947 to 1964. Nehru's daughter Indira Gandhi holds the record of hoisting the national flag for the second highest time. She did so 16 times, just one short of her father's record. However, this was done in two different stints from 1966-1977 and 1980-1984. Manmohan Singh, who was prime minister of the Congress-led UPA government for 10 years, hoisted the national flag 10 times between 2004 and 2014. Of India's 15 prime ministers, Gulzarilal Nanda and Chandra Shekhar were the only ones who did not get a chance to hoist the tricolour even once. Chandra Shekhar, who became the first prime minister of I