Sanjeeb Phuyal is the Nepali Editor of Newschecker based in Kathmandu, Nepal. He brings over a decade of experience writing and editing news. In his previous stint, he worked as online editor for The Kathmandu Post. With the growth of social media platforms—and the ever-growing competition amongst media outlets to churn out breaking news, he feels that fact-checking every piece of information has become more essential today than ever before.
Claim
Kathmandu Metro City deputy mayor Sunita Dangol praised Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane and criticised NC leader Gagan Thapa.
Fact
Viral video shows Dangol addressing her party CPN-UML programme where she spoke about the power of youth.
A three-minute video allegedly showing Deputy Mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) Sunita Dangol praising Home Minister and Chairman of Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) Rabi Lamichhane and criticising Nepali Congress General Secretary Gagan Thapa is going viral on TikTok.
TikTok user @activenepal_99 posted a video showing deputy mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City Sunita Dangol delivering a speech. Text superimposed on the video reads, “Deputy mayor Sunita saluted Rabi [Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane] used satire against Gagan Thapa and Prachanda [Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal] laughed hysterically, Gagan Thapa became angry.” Another text on the video reads, “Deputy mayor Sunita Dangol declared in front of all senior political leaders that the country should be steered based on the ideology of youths as they are capable of taking charge.” In her speech, Dangol says, “Youth have passion and dedication. Today, I am standing in front of you as an example of a trusted person that youth can take leadership of every sector not only the politics. I can see the vibes in your eyes. Two years ago, you believed me and voted for me. It was uncommon for the youths to join politics especially it was an endangered thing for a young woman to come into politics. The way the people and the party trusted me when I joined politics, it should continue…” The video also showed footage of Prime Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane, Nepali Congress General Secretary Gagan Thapa and Prime Minister Dahal.
The video posted on May 20 has garnered 6334 likes, 66 users have shared it and 225 people have commented until the time of publishing this article. The archived version of the TikTok video can be seen here.
Newschecker found the claim to be misleading.
Fact Check /Verification
To check the authenticity of the claim made in the viral video, Newschecker took several keyframes and keyframes on the viral video and conducted reverse searches on them. The search led us to a video, dated May 18, 2024, published on the YouTube channel named Online Khabar Nepal. On checking the video, we found that the audio and video from the 0.12-minute timestamp onwards matched the viral video. However, the video didn’t have any clips showing Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, and Nepali Congress leader Gagan Thapa.
We ran a search on YouTube by using relevant keywords, and found a video, dated May 20, 2024, published on the YouTube channel named Artha Khabar. The video from 4.35-minute onwards matched the viral video. We thoroughly checked the video and found that Dangol was attending a workshop titled ‘Youth’ organised by Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) contact office Koshi Province, and Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane, Prime Minister Dahal and NC General Secretary were not in attending the event.
Further, we ran a search on Google for relevant key-phrases and found a news article titled ‘Sunita Dangol’ says parties should reform to attract youths into politics’. On checking the news we found that the news was covered from the same event from where the viral clip was captured.
Thus, our findings showed that Kathmandu deputy mayor Sunita Dangol neither praised or saluted Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane nor criticised Nepali Congress General Secretary Gagan Thapa.
Conclusion
The viral video actually shows Kathmandu deputy mayor Dangol speaking about youth at a workshop organised by CPN-UML Contact Office, Koshi Province, and thus is misleading.
Result: False
Sources
Online Khabar Nepal /YouTube , May 18, 2024
Artha Khabar /YouTube May 20, 2024
Seto Khabar online, May, 2024
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Sanjeeb Phuyal is the Nepali Editor of Newschecker based in Kathmandu, Nepal. He brings over a decade of experience writing and editing news. In his previous stint, he worked as online editor for The Kathmandu Post. With the growth of social media platforms—and the ever-growing competition amongst media outlets to churn out breaking news, he feels that fact-checking every piece of information has become more essential today than ever before.
