This photo does not show Malaysian leader Mahathir Mohamad’s younger brother, but an Indian government minister who is not related to him
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on October 2, 2019 at 08:30
- 2 min read
- By AFP Malaysia
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This photo of an elderly man, marked with a red circle, was published on Facebook on August 18, 2019.
The post has been shared over 1,700 times.
The Malaysian-language caption, translates to English as: “THIS IS THE YOUNGER BROTHER OF OUR PRIME MINISTER TUN MAHATHIR WHO IS NOW IN KERALA INDIA.”
Mahathir Mohamad is the current prime minister of Malaysia.
Below is the screenshot of the misleading post:
The same photo was published in Facebook posts here and here with a similar claim.
The claim is false; the man circled in the photo is actually an Indian government minister who is not related to Malaysia's Mahathir.
A Google reverse image search found the same photo was published by Indian news outlets, such as the Hindustan Times here and the Times of India here, on March 4, 2018.
The Hindustan Times photo caption states: “Makkal Neethi Mayyam founder Kamal Haasan meets Kerela chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan at Circuit House in Chennai on Saturday.”
The Times of India’s photo caption states: “Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan and his wife Kamala meet with Makkal Needhi Maiam president Kamal Haasan at the government guest house at Chepauk.”
Below is a screenshot of the Hindustan Times news report:
Below is a comparison of the photo from the misleading post (L) and from Hindustan Times news report (R):
Pinarayi Vijayan is the chief minister of Kerala. This is his official Twitter account.
His biography at the Chief Minister of Kerala’s official website says: “Pinarayi Vijayan was born as the youngest son of Maroli Koran and Kalyani on 21st March 1944.”
Mahathir is the youngest child in his family. According to his biography at the official website of the Prime Minister’s Office here, Mahathir’s parents were “Mohamad bin Iskandar and Wan Tempawan binti Wan Hanafi”; born in 1925, he “was the youngest of nine siblings”.
Controversy about Mahathir’s Indian heritage has dogged Mahathir for years, with political rivals alleging his father was an Indian called Iskandar Kutty.
Mahathir’s daughter, Marina Mahathir, denied the claim here, saying Iskandar was in fact Mahathir’s great grandfather, who later married to a prominent Malay family.
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