Fact Check: An ‘onion’ lie by Congress to defame Nirmala Sitharaman

New Delhi, Oct 13: I do not eat a lot of onions and garlic. I come from a family which does not care much about onions, Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said in December 2019 while responding to an opposition member during a debate in Lok Sabha over the rising prices of onions.

On October 8 this year the minster went out shopping in Chennai and onions became the focal point with many trolling her. The Maharashtra Congress Sena Dal shared a photograph of Sitharaman allegedly buying onions from a street vendor.

While sharing the image the tweet read, 'heard in Parliament that Sitharaman does not eat onions at all. The tweet was trying to imply that she had lied in the Lower House.

Some even said sarcastically if the minister was buying onions for her neighbours.

OneIndia has found that the photo has been edited and Sitharaman in reality did not purchase onions in Chennai. The office of the Finance Minister shared several photos and a video of her shopping for vegetables in Chennai. In none of the photos could we find the finance minister buying onions.

If one closely looks at the frames in the video which is very similar to the viral video, it becomes clear that the onions were added digitally. In the actual video she appears to be buying wild yarns.

A report in The Hindu said that during a day long visit to Chennai to inaugurate the Ananda Karuna Vidhyalayam, the minister visited the South Mada Street in the Mylapore area. Here she purchased Sundakki (turkey berry), pidi karanai (wild yam), five bunches of mulai keerai (a kind of amaranth), and manathakkali keerai (black nightshade).

The Indian Express spoke to one of the vendors who said that she purchased vegetables worth Rs 200. However the report does not mention the purchase of onions anywhere.

Hence it become clear that the Congress' tweet on Sitharaman purchasing onions is false. The images being shared with the claim that she purchased onions is false.