A ghost? Twitterati wonder who is holding Modi’s mother in BJP leader’s tweet
Twitter users claimed that the photo was edited – a hand was holding Heeraben’s arm, but it isn’t clear who it belongs to.
In an attempt to attack the Nehru-Gandhi family, Union minister Vijay Sampla on Friday tweeted a picture of Narendra Modi’s nonagenarian mother modestly choosing to ride an autorickshaw. Around Heeraben’s arm is someone’s hand holding her – except that, as Twitter users soon pointed out, the hand does not have a body.
“A ghost is holding her hand,” suggested one user in jest. Most Twitterati said the picture was edited with Photoshop, while some said it was not – speculating instead that it was a photograph from four years ago. Curiously though, the original photograph, said to be clicked in 2014, has the same mysterious hand in it.
The picture from May 2014 was attributed by most media outlets to news agency PTI, claiming it showed Heeraben riding an autorickshaw to cast her vote in Gandhinagar.
“Our Beloved PM Shri @narendramodi’s Mother is still travelling in Auto, While @RahulGandhi’s Mother is the World’s 4th Wealthiest Politician,” the tweet by Vijay Sampla had said, triggering a series of witty responses and attempts at a fact-check: