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 Mayor Balendra Shah wrote in X (formerly Twitter), questioning why the citizenship of KMG Chairman Kailash Sirohiya doesn’t have his father’s details.
Fact
No, viral video carries a screen grab from a parody X handle resembling KMC Mayor Shah.
A viral video carrying a purported X (formerly twitter) post by mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC), Balendra Shah, questioning why the citizenship of Kantipur Media Group Chairman Kailash Sirohiya doesn’t have the name of his father, is going viral on TikTok.
The video goes viral in the wake of a complaint lodged with Dhanusha District police regarding the citizenship of Sirohiya. Sirohiya had clarified in his social media post that he didn’t acquire two citizenship certificates.
In this context, TikTok user @tufan7861 posted a video showing a screengrab of an X (formerly twitter) post purportedly posted by Kathmandu’s mayor Balen Shah. Text superimposed on the viral screenshot reads, “Balen Shah writes in his twitter post.” The purported tweet tweet by Balen Shah reads, “There was no fuss and nobody bothered when the citizenships of Rabi Lamichhane and Chief Justice were investigated. It didn’t become an issue when the citizenship of Nepal Army General was probed, but why was the investigation into Kailash Sirohiya’s citizenship linked with community [ethnicity]? Why can’t the details of Sirohiya’s father be seen in the document supposed to have three generation details?”
The video posted on May 5 has garnered 1496 likes, 20 users have shared it and 86 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 veracity of the claim made in the viral video, Newschecker checked the verified X (formerly twitter) handle of Balen Shah. But we didn’t find any post regarding the citizenship controversy of KMG Chairman Kailash Sirohiya.
We then looked up the Facebook page of Balen Shah but didn’t find any post by the mayor questioning the citizenship of KMG Chair Sirohiya.
Fuhrer, we ran a google search by using the key phrases from the purported text written on the viral post. The search led us to an X post which exactly matched the screen grab from the viral video. However, we found that the X handle named Balen Shah, which carried the profile image resembling the verified account of Balen Shah, was a parody account.
Thus, our findings show that the purported screengrab of Balen Shah’s twitter post is misleading.
Conclusion
No, Kathmandu Mayor Balen Shah didn’t write an X post questioning the citizenship of Kantipur Media Group Chair Kailash Sirohiya. The viral video is edited by using a screengrab from a parody handle named Balen Shah, and thus misleading.
Result: False
Sources
Balen Shah /X (formerly Twitter)
Balen Shah /Facebook
Setopati
Balen Shah Parody/X
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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.
