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
Foreign Minister Arzu Rana Deuba returned home from the US “after being greeted with black flags”.
Fact
No, the viral clip shows her arrival in Kathmandu after completing her official visit to India in August.
A viral video allegedly showing Foreign Minister and Nepali Congress leader Arzu Rana Deuba returning from Home after black-flag protest in the United States of America (USA).
Foreign Minister Arzu Rana Deuba, who was in Canada to participate in the Women Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Toronto, reached New York, US, on September 21, 2024, to attend the 79th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
Against this backdrop, TikTok user @raj_bhandari44 posted a video showing Foreign Minister Rana walking out of Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu. Text superimposed on the video reads, “Returning to Nepal after facing back-flags and protests in the United States of America.” In the background audio people are heard chanting, “Down with Arzu Rana.”
The video posted on September 23 has garnered 10.4k likes, 556 users have shared it and 1156 people have commented until the last count. The archived version of the TikTok video can be seen here.
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 ran a reverse search on it. The search results pointed us to Foreign Minister Arzu Rana’s recent visit to India.
We, then, ran a search on YouTube by using Nepali key-phrase ‘Foreign Minister Arzu Rana Deuba arrives from India visit’ and the search result led us to several videos of the press meet addressed by Rana upon her arrival from India on August 22, 2024.
On checking a video, dated August 22, 2024, posted on the YouTube channel of NepalKhabar online, we found that the video frame at 6-34-minute exactly matched the viral clip.
We also checked another video posted on the YouTube channel named Nepal News Bank and found that the video clip showing Arzu Rana Deuba leaving the airport after her press meet resembled the viral clip.
Further, we checked for the latest news regarding Foreign Minister Arzu’s current location and found an article, dated September 24, published in the Kathmandu Post. According to the news, Minister Rana, addressing the Ministerial Meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) on Monday, called upon the international community to assist in the safe release of Bipin Joshi, the Nepali student who has been in the Palestinian militant group Hamas captivity since October 7 last year.
We checked the verified Facebook page of Arzu Rana Deuba and found that she has been regularly posting updates from various events of the 79th UN General Assembly in New York.
We also searched if Foreign Minister Arzu Rana Deuba was greeted with black flags by using several relevant key-phrases. But we found no such report.
Thus, our findings clearly indicated that Foreign Minister Arzu Rana has not returned home from the US.
Conclusion
No, Foreign Minister Arzu Rana Deuba has not returned home from New York after being greeted with black flags. The viral video actually shows her arriving in Kathmandu on August 22 after her official visit to India.
Result: False
Sources
Nepalkhabar, August 22, 2024
Nepal News Bank, August 22, 2024
Arzu Rana Deuba /Facebook
Kathmandu Post, Sept 24, 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.
