A photo is being shared widely on social media with a claim that it shows former President APJ Abdul Kalam with his mother. Previously, the same picture has also been shared as a childhood photo of PM Modi. Let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Childhood photo of former President APJ Abdul Kalam with his mother.
Fact: The child in the photo is not Abdul Kalam. He is Sridhar Maryala from the state of Telangana. The uncropped version of the photo shows Maryala’s family. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When we searched about the posted photo, we found a 2019 Facebook post by a Telugu page ‘Open Mind’. In the post, it is written that the photo shows the family of a Facebook user – ‘Maryala Srinivas’. On looking at the Facebook profile of Maryala Srinivas, it was found that he posted an uncropped version of the photo in 2020, and clarified that the photo shows his family (his parents and siblings). He clarified that the boy beside his mother in the photo is neither Kalam nor Modi but his brother – Sridhar Maryala. He has also posted the same photo in 2011.
In some of the photos and videos posted by Maryala Srinivas and Sridhar Maryala on their Facebook accounts, the old photos of their mother can be found. The woman in those old photos very much resembles the woman in the viral photo.
To sum it up, the child in the posted photo is neither Abdul Kalam nor Narendra Modi. The posted photo is a cropped version of Maryala’s family photo.
