Fact-Check: Image of Nirmala Sitharaman Buying Onions is Photoshopped

The picture showing Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman buying onions is photoshopped.

A photograph of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, which shows her buying onions, was shared by the official Twitter handle of Maharashtra Congress Sevadal.

The photograph was shared to mock Sitharaman for her December 2019 comments. While replying to a question over surging prices of onions, she said that she doesn't eat onion or garlic as she comes from a family where both food items are not a part of their diet.

However, we found that the image is photoshopped. Her photograph was taken from a video posted on the official Twitter account of the Office of Nirmala Sitharaman and was later altered to add onions.

CLAIM

The claim with the image suggests that the Finance Minister was buying onions in a market with a sarcastic caption in Hindi, "ये प्याज क्या पड़ोसियों के लिए खरीदी जा रही है???"

(Translation: Are these onions being bought for her neighbours?)

Maharashtra Congress Sevadal also shared another tweet with the same image.

Archives of similar claims can be found here, here, here, and here.

WHAT WE FOUND

We searched for the image on her official social media accounts and came across a tweet posted by the Office of Nirmala Sitharaman.

The tweet had a video uploaded on 8 October, showing Sitharaman purchasing vegetables from a vendor.

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. pic.twitter.com/emJlu81BRh

— NSitharamanOffice (@nsitharamanoffc) October 8, 2022

We noticed one of the frames around the 50-second mark that looked similar to the viral image.

We compared both images and found that the picture was from the same day.

We also found more photographs of her buying vegetables on the same Twitter handle.

According to a report published by The Indian Express, Sitharaman was on a one-day-long visit to Chennai to inaugurate a multi-disciplinary centre for children in the city.

During this trip, she went out to purchase vegetables at Chennai’s Mylapore market. Another report in The Hindu listed the vegetables bought by her as - “Sundakkai (turkey berry), pidi karanai (wild yam), five bunches of mulai keerai (a kind of amaranth), and manathakkali keerai (black nightshade)”.

Clearly, a photoshopped picture of Nirmala Sitharaman is being shared with false claims.

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