Fact Check: Old Video Showing Minister Mahabir Pun Dancing Goes Viral As Recent

Claim
Mahabir Pun and his colleagues at national innovation center danced in excitement after Pun’s appointment as minister.
Fact
Viral video is four years old.

A video showing newly appointed Education Minister Mahabir Pun dancing in excitement along with his colleagues at National Innovation Center allegedly after the appointment of Pun.

Pun, founder of National Innovation Centre, won the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2007 for his efforts in introducing wireless internet in rural Nepal. He was appointed as the Minister for Education, Science, and Technology in the interim Cabinet led by Sushila Karki.

In this context, a TikTok user @bijaytamang2012 posted a video
showing Pun and his colleagues dancing at the national innovation Centre. Text superimposed on the video reads, “Everyone at Innovation Centre danced in excitement after Mahabir Pun was appointed as minister.”

The video posted on September 22 has garnered 3778 likes, 198 users have shared it and 139 people have commented until the last count. The archived version of the TikTok video can be seen here.

Fact Check /Verification

To check the authenticity of the claim, Newschecker took several key frames from the viral video and ran reverse searches on them. A Google reverse search on a frame led us to a video, dated 28 August, 2021, posted on a YouTube channel named ‘Life of Manoj  Mali’. On checking the video titled ‘Dr Mahabir Pun on fire’, we found that the video from 0:10-minute onwards exactly matched the viral clip. The video descriptions noted that the video shows a dance at National Innovation Centre to the tune of Nepathya band’s Sa-Karnali as they take a short break from work.

Further, we found another video, dated February 10, 2025, posted on the Facebook page of Sath Samarthan Sahayog Nepal. The video clip from 0:10-minute onwards exactly matched the viral clip.

Thus, our findings clearly showed that the viral clip was not captured in August 2021.

Conclusion

No, the viral video does not show Dr Mahabir Pun and his co-workers celebrating his appointment as Education Minister. The viral video is four years old, and shows Pun and his co-workers dancing during a break at National Innovation Centre.

Result: Misleading  

Sources
Kathmandu Post, Sept 22, 2025
Life of Manoj Mainali /YouTube , Aug 28, 2021
Sath Sahayog Samrthan Nepal/Facebook, Feb 10, 2025

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