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
Former Chief Justice Sushila Karki urges politicians proposes KMC mayor Balendra Shah as Nepal’s future Prime Minister.
Fact
No ex-CJ Karki only said that senior politicians should step down and give chance to the younger generation to run the country
A viral video claiming to show former Chief Justice Sushila Karki addressing a programme where she allegedly appealed to everyone to strive for appointing Balendra Shah, the incumbent mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC), as the future prime minister of the country.
TikTok user @radheshyamchaudhary01 posted a video showing former Chief Justice Sushila Karki passionately speaking at a public programme.
Text superimposed on the video reads, “Former Chief Justice Sushila Karki urged the politicians to either do something on their own or hand the leadership over to the younger generation. Except for a few, no politician in Nepal knows how to do politics. She pitched for making Balen Shah as the next prime minister. Hit one like button as an honour for this woman.
“In her speech, Karki urges the politicians to hand over the reins of the country to the younger generation. She lashes out at the tendency among Nepali politicians of earning illegal money by draining the state coffers. “Politicians in other developed countries have their own business or any other profession when they are not elected. But why don’t our politicians have the culture that they should earn for themselves.” In the eight-minute-long video, Karki comes down heavily upon the corrupt tendency among Nepali politicians.
The archived version of the video can be seen here.
The video posted on June 24 has garnered 6628 likes, 201 users have shared it and 272 users have commented on the video.
Fact Check /Verification
To check the authenticity of the claim made in the viral video, Newschecker closely observed the video and noticed a watermark and logo of ‘Aajako Press’ on the viral video.
Taking a clue from it, we conducted a search on YouTube by using relevant keywords and found a video whose frame exactly matched the viral video. On checking the video dated 17 June 2023, we found that the audio and the length of the video exactly matched the viral video. But nowhere in the eight-minute-38-second-long video did we find Karki proposing Balendra Shah as the future Prime Minister.
We also came across another video, dated 17 June 2023, published on the YouTube channel named DC Nepal. But the video was a shorter version of Karki’s speech.
Further, we scoured the internet for other media coverage of the event where the former chief justice Karki remarked that the politicians should earn their living. We found an article titled ‘Ex-Chief Justice Karki says politicians should be guided by the principle that they should earn their living’ published on the Annapurna online. The article dated June 17 2023 reported the speech delivered by former Chief Justice Karki during a book release programme in Kathmandu.
Newschecker investigation shows that former Chief Justice Sushila Karki never pitched the idea of making Balendra Shah as the Prime Minister, rather she only appealed to the senior politicians to hand over the leadership to the younger generation.
Conclusion
Thus, the viral video claiming to show ex-Chief Justice Sushila Karki proposing KMC Mayor Balendra Shah as Nepal’s future Prime Minister is misleading.
Result: False
Sources
Aajako Press/YouTube 17 June, 2023
DC Nepal/YouTube 17 June, 2023
Annapurna Post 17 June, 2023
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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.
