Authors
Vaibhav is a part of Newschecker’s English team, where he spots and debunks all kinds of misinformation, making the rounds on the internet. A Journalism graduate from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, he holds an M.A degree in Philosophy and an M.Phil from Delhi University.
(This article was originally published in Newschecker Bengali by Paromita Das)
Amid Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s visit to the Mylapore market in Chennai where she was seen shopping for vegetables from a vendor, an image of her buying onions is going viral on social media. Newschecker found this image to be edited.
The image has been shared on Twitter by the official handle of Maharashtra Congress Sevadal along with the caption ‘Heard in Parliament that @nsitharaman does not eat onions at all.’ when translated via Google Translate.
Newschecker found similar claims on Twitter with different captions, archived versions of which can be found below.
Archived versions of the tweets can be seen here and here.
In December 2019, during a question hour by the opposition, Sitharaman had responded to a query over the rising cost of onions, stating that she does not consume either onion or garlic because neither food is consumed in her family.
Fact Check /Verification
We started by checking the official Twitter handle of Nirmala Sitharaman Office to verify the authenticity of the image and found a tweet posted by the account on 8th October, 2022 along with the captions During her day-long visit to Chennai, Smt @nsitharaman made a halt at Mylapore market where she interacted with the vendors & local residents and also purchased vegetables. Around the 51 second mark, the image similar to the viral image can been.
In the image it is clearly visible that Nirmala Sitharaman was buying sweet potatoes from the vegetable vendor, and not onions as is being claimed in the viral image.
Upon conducting a keyword search on Google with the words “Nirmala Sitharaman”, “Chennai”, “vegetables” we found a report by NDTV uploaded on their website on 9th October, 2022 titled ‘Video: When Finance Minister Went Vegetable Shopping. What She Got.’
The report states that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday shared a video of her buying vegetables from a street vendor in Mylapore locality of Chennai in Tamil Nadu. She also interacted with some of the vendors, said a tweet by her office.
The video showed her picking out some sweet potatoes while she also shared photographs in which she was interested in some bitter gourd too. Earlier in the day, she inaugurated a centre for children with special needs in the city.
Conclusion
Newschecker’s investigation reveals that the image showing Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman buying onions from a vegetable vendor is edited. The original image shows her buying sweet potatoes.
Result : Altered Photo / Video
Our Sources
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s official tweet
Report by NDTV on 9th October, 2022
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Authors
Vaibhav is a part of Newschecker’s English team, where he spots and debunks all kinds of misinformation, making the rounds on the internet. A Journalism graduate from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, he holds an M.A degree in Philosophy and an M.Phil from Delhi University.
