No, Nirmala Sitharaman Did Not Touch Abhinandan’s Mother’s Feet

The woman whose feet the defence minister touches is Hema Kumari, mother of a martyr named Ajit Pradhan.

Ever since Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman burst into the news space, fake news purveyors have peddled all sorts of fake claims related to him.

The Quint recently came across one such video which falsely claimed that Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman touched the feet of Abhinandan’s mother at a function.

CLAIM

A short video recently went viral on social media which shows the defence minister touching the feet of a lady. The caption along with the video read, “Nirmala Sitaraman our honourable defence minister touching the feet of Abhinandan's mother. These are the values that need to be inculcated in our children. It comes by setting an example not asking then to do [sic].”

TRUE OR FALSE

The claim is false. While the video is not a fabricated one, The Quint could establish that the woman whose feet the defence minister touches is not Abhinandan’s mother.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

A search on Facebook with the caption mentioned above shows that a number of individual users have shared the video.

A search on Twitter also shows similar results.

However, a reverse image search of the frames from the video shows that the defence minister’s act was from an event in Dehradun on Monday, 4 March. The event, in fact, got covered by various media outlets due to Sitharaman’s gesture.

The Indian Express’ report of the event even includes a tweet by BJP’s Dehradun MLA Ganesh Joshi, who says that the woman in the video is Hem Kumari, mother of a martyr named Ajit Pradhan.

आज @nsitharaman जी ने देहरादून में एक पूर्व सैनिक सम्मेलन में प्रतिभाग किया । जब उत्तराखंड के अमर शहीद अजीत प्रधान,सेना मेडल सम्मानित,की माँ हेम कुमारी जी उनका स्वागत करने पहुँचीं तो निर्मला जी ने तुरंत आगे बढ़ कर उनके पाँव छुए।

हम सभी पूर्व सैनिकों का सर गर्व से ऊँचा हो गया । pic.twitter.com/Etsg8Rc0ZR

— Ganesh Joshi (@ganeshjoshibjp) March 4, 2019

(Not convinced of a story you came across on social media and want it verified? Send us the details on WhatsApp at 9910181818 and we'll fact-check it for you. You can also read all our fact-checked stories here.)