No, These Are Not Old Pictures of PM Modi's Mother Heeraben

The first three images are of three different women and not PM Modi's mother.

Fact-check: These images don't show PM Modi's mother Heeraben.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A video claiming to show Prime Minister Narendra Modi's mother Heeraben Modi's transformation through the years is being shared on social media.

What does the video show?: It shows six pictures, including a picture with PM Modi at the end of the clip. This comes after Heeraben Modi passed away on 30 December, at the age of 99.

An archive can be seen here. 

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

The truth: The first three pictures in the video are not of Heeraben Modi.

If not her, then who?: We performed a Google reverse image search on each of these pictures and found out that these are three different women.

First Image: A Facebook post from 2011 by one Maryala Srinivas, which carried the same image.

• The first image of the woman in the viral video was taken from this family photo.

• Srinivas had shared the image with a caption stating that it was his family photo, which included him with his mother, father, brother, and sister.

Comparison between the original image and the image used in the viral video.

(Source: Altered by The Quint)

• In 2020, he had put up a post clarifying that the photo was his family photo and it didn't show former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam's or Narendra Modi's family.

An archive of the post can be found here.

(Source: Facebook/screenshot)

SECOND IMAGE

• An article published by Hindi daily Navbharat Times carried the second image used in the viral video.

• This report was published on 30 December 2022 and identified the woman as PM Modi's sister Vasantiben.

The image shows Narendra Modi's sister Vasantiben Modi. 

(Source: Navbharat Times/ Screenshot)

• We looked for more visuals of Vasantiben Modi and found a video interview from 2017 shared by ABP News.

• The video showed Vasantiben in Vadnagar, Gujarat praising PM Modi.

Comparison between a screenshot from the interview and the image used in the viral video.

(Source: Altered by The Quint)

• We also found a report by NDTV from 2014 which carried a different photo of Vasantiben.

• We also noticed that she was wearing the same outfit in both pictures.

Comparison between NDTV's image and the image used in the viral video.

(Source: Altered by The Quint)

THIRD IMAGE

• We found a video interview published by NDTV in 2020 which identified the woman as Bhawana Somaaya, a film journalist, who had translated letters written by Modi to his mother for the book 'Letters to Mother.'

• The thumbnail of the video matched the screenshot used in the viral video.

Comparison between the thumbnail of the video interview and the image used in the viral video.

(Source: Altered by The Quint)

Conclusion: Three images of different women are being falsely shared as Narendra Modi's mother Heeraben Modi's photos from her younger days.

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