Following the death of India’s former prime minister Manmohan Singh on December 26, 2024, a picture of a man bowing to touch the feet of politician Sonia Gandhi surfaced in posts that falsely identified the man as Singh. His critics have frequently depicted Singh as subservient to Gandhi, the longest-serving leader of the opposition Congress party. But the circulating picture showed a Congress party worker and not Singh, according to the photographer who took it in November 2011.<\/h3>\n
“Those who protest in the name of Constitution, where were you when the country saw the leader of slaves Manmohan Singh licking the feet of a bar dancer from 2004 to 2013,” read a Hindi-language X\u00a0post<\/a> shared on December 29, 2024.<\/p>\n It included a photo of a man in saffron-coloured headgear bowing before former Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi in what appears to be an attempt to touch her feet.<\/p>\n The post surfaced days after the death of Manmohan Singh<\/a> — India’s prime minister from 2004 to 2014 — who was hailed for overseeing an economic boom in Asia’s fourth-largest economy in his first term (archived link<\/a><\/span>).<\/p>\n Critics, however, said it was\u00a0Sonia Gandhi<\/a>, the Italian-born widow of the assassinated Rajiv Gandhi and the leader of Congress party during Singh’s tenure, who was the power behind the throne (archived link<\/a>).<\/p>\n “Bar dancer” refers to accusations by Gandhi’s detractors that she worked as a bar dancer in Italy before she met Rajiv.<\/p>\n Further Hindi text overlaid on the picture — which bore the logo of the Getty Images agency — claimed it was taken when Gandhi was 71 and Singh was 85.<\/p>\n “This was our former prime minister. At least they should have respected his age,” it added.<\/p>\n Screenhsot of the false post taken on December 30, 2024 <\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n The picture was also shared with similar claims elsewhere on\u00a0X<\/a> and on Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n A Google reverse image search found it was published<\/a> by Getty Images on December 1, 2011 (archived link<\/a>).<\/p>\n “A representative touches the feet of Sonia Gandhi as Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi looks on during the Indian Youth Congress’s national level convention of Elected Office Bearers in New Delhi on Tuesday,” its caption read.<\/p>\nMistaken identity<\/h3>\n