Thread by @SaketGokhale

Here's a glimpse of how sanghi propaganda works:

When RSS saffronized education under NDA govt. in late 90s, the theory peddled was that Pak. celebrates Independence Day on 14th August bcoz they hate us & didn't want it to be on the same day as India.

Here's the facts: (1/5)

India adopted Indian Standard Time (IST) of GMT+5hrs 30 mins to ensure that a vast country like ours works on a single timezone.

Usually timezones are GMT+full hour but we adopted the extra 30mins to ensure that our Western & Eastern Parts don't need separate time-zones (2/5)

Pakistan adopted the standard of GMT+5 hours thus putting them 30 mins behind India on the time-zone. (3/n)

Independence was declared on 15th Aug 1947 at midnight Indian Standard Time (IST).

At that point, in Pakistan, the time was still 11:30pm on 14th August, 1947 (3/5)

Therefore, Pakistan got its Independence on 14th August, 1947 at 23:30 hrs (11:30 pm). And that's why they celebrate it a day before us. This has nothing to do with "hatred" for India as the sanghi propaganda would like us to believe thru hashtags like #14AugustBlackDay. (4/5)

I wish all our neighbors on the other side of the border in Pakistan a Happy Independence Day.

May we hope today that bigots & terrorists across both our countries don't led us into unnecessary conflicts. And may we pray that we achieve peace at least in our lifetimes. (5/5)

lead* not “led”