 "Whose hand is it anyway? Photo of Narendra Modi's mother in autorickhaw goes viral, Twitter plays detective")
A photo of Narendra Modi’s mother Hiraben in an autorickshaw from 2014 resurfaced recently, evoking widely varying reactions on Twitter. While some heaped praise on the prime minister and focussed on his mother’s simple lifestyle, some noticed a mysterious hand holding her arm and wondered if the picture was photoshopped. It all seemed to have started with a tweet posted by Vijay Sampla, Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment.
Our Beloved PM Shri @narendramodi 's Mother is still travelling in Auto, While @RahulGandhi 's Mother is the World's 4th Wealthiest Politician!#NarendraModi pic.twitter.com/HsLuTBYUaI
— Vijay Sampla (@thevijaysampla) May 4, 2018
Several people lauded the prime minister, some in the exact same words as the minister of state quoted above (see here and here.) Some users, on the other hand, got inquisitive and zoomed in the image.
The photo was originally taken by news agency PTI when Hiraben arrived at a polling booth to cast her vote in the 2014 Lok Sabha election. It was used in several news articles, such as this one in Hindustan Times. An analysis by fact-checking website BoomLive concluded that the photograph was not photoshopped
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