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
The Nepal Army ‘entered’ Singha Durbar with evidence and the Army Chief challenged the government.
Fact
Video shows Nepal Army Chief speaking at the State Affairs Committee of the Parliament in Singha Durbar
A video claiming that Nepal Army has ‘entered’ Singha Durbar, the central government secretariat, with evidence and the Chief of Army Staff (CoAS) General Prabhuram Sharma has challenged everyone is going viral on TikTok.
A TikTok user @yagyastha55_official posted a video showing Nepal Army Chief Sharma speaking in a meeting. In the three-minute 10-second video, General Sharma says, “I have brought the evidence. I don’t fake the honourable lawmakers. I would like to make it clear that Taradhoj Panedy was not recommended for promotion. It was only a seven-day notice issued according to the act drafted by you [lawmakers]. And the notice calls for the stakeholders to come up with facts. If there had been any discrepancy, we will take action.” General Sharma goes on to speak about the discrepancy in the date of birth of Taradhoj Pandey, who was in line to succeed CoAS General Sharma. He further says that it was the handiwork of a group bent on defaming Nepal Army. Text superimposed on the video reads, “Nepal Army has entered Singha Durbar with evidence. The Army has swung into action. The Army Chief challenged everyone.”
The video posted on December 21 has garnered 954 likes, 10 users have shared it and 15 users 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 took a key frame from the viral video and conducted a reverse search on it. The search led us to a video, dated December 20, posted on the YouTube channel of Setopati online. On checking the video, we found that the video footage exactly matched the viral video and it showed the Nepal Army Chief speaking at the State Affairs and Good Governance Committee of the House of Representatives on December 20.
We found that CoAS Sharma spoke about the discrepancy in the date of birth of Major General Tara Dhoj Panedy after complaints were filed against him at the State Affairs Committee of the parliament, among other government bodies.
Further, we found an article published in the Kathmandu Post, dated December 21, 2023, which clarified that the Nepal Army chief also presented a progress report on the construction of Kathmandu-Terai Fast Track road.
However, we didn’t find anything like the Nepal Army swung into action and entered Singha Durbar and the Army Chief challenging the government.
Further, we found an article published on Barhakhari online which reported that Nepal Army Chief said that Nepal Army didn’t recommend Pandey for promotion but issued a seven-day notice for filing complaints against him.
Thus, our findings clearly show that the Nepal Army was speaking about the controversy surrounding the dual date of birth of Major General Tara Dhoj Pandey at the Parliament’s State Affairs and Good Government Committee meeting, which is inside the Singha Durbar, is sensationalised.
Conclusion
The viral video claiming that Nepal Army has entered Singha Durbar and the Army Chief has challenged everyone is sensationalised and exaggerated, and thus is misleading.
Result: Missing Context
Sources
Setopati.com, December 20, 2023
Setopati /YouTube, December 20, 2023
Baahrakhari online, December 21, 2023
Kathmandu Post, December 21, 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.
