No, Iranian President Didn’t Touch a Hindu Religious Leader's Feet at BRICS

We found out that the Iranian President did not touch the feet of a religious leader and take his blessings.

A video is going viral on social media, falsely claiming to show Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian touching the feet of a Hindu religious leader at the 2026 BRICS Summit.

(Source: X/Altered by The Quint)

A video is going viral on social media, claiming to show Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian touching the feet of a Hindu religious leader at the 2026 BRICS Summit.

Hindustan Times Bangla also shared the visuals, stating that it shows the Iranian President touching the feet of a Hindu religious leader at the summit.

An archived version of this claim can be found here.

(Source: X/Screenshot)

An archived version of this claim can be found here.

(Source: Hindustan Times Bangla/Screenshot)

(Archived versions of similar claims can be found here and here.)

Is it true?: No, the claim is false. The video shows the Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian picking up a document from the ground.

How did we find out?: We ran a reverse image search and found an Instagram post sharing visuals similar to the viral video.

• The video also included visuals of the same incident from another angle.

• However, from the different angle, it doesn't look like the President is touching the religious leader's feet.

• It seems as if he's picking something from the ground.

The screenshots from the video that show a different angle of the same incident.

(Source: Instagram/Screenshot)

• We found a Facebook post by a user, Acharya Lokesh Muni, who shared pictures of himself at the event, standing next to the Iranian president.

• The Quint contacted him, and he stated that the claim that the Iranian President touched the feet of a Hindu religious leader is false.

• He said that while he was showing the president his magazine, named Aahwaan, which was about an organisation he started, 'World Peace Centre', the magazine fell from his hands.

• He said the video shows the Iranian president picking it up on his behalf as a courtesy, which was circulated widely on the internet with a misleading claim.

The Facebook post by Acharya Lokesh Muni, who attended the event. 

(Facebook/Screenshot)

Conclusion: The video shows Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian picking up a document from the ground and not touching the feet of a religious leader.

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