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
Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli said that the Congress-led government will not last after mid-January.
Fact
Viral video shows an old clip of KP Sharma Oli from 2017 when his party was not in the government.
A video allegedly showing Prime Minister and Chairman of Communist Party of Nepal –Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) saying that Nepali Congress=led government will not continue after the month of Poush [Mid-January] and a leftist government will be formed soon is going viral on TikTok.
Earlier on November 28, during the first quarterly review meeting on the implementation of the government’s policy and programme, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli had hinted at the possibility of reshuffling the cabinet citing dissatisfaction with the performance of some ministers.
Against this backdrop, TikTok user @mr.raz18 posted a 50-second video showing KP Sharma Oli addressing a gathering. Text superimposed on the video reads, “The current ruling coalition will be toppled after the month of Poush [mid-January]. Cracks have appeared in the coalition.” In the video, Oli is heard saying, “Sher Bahadur Deuba is the last Prime Minister of Nepali congress.” The viral video also shows a small clip of Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba saying, “You are speaking too much.” Then Oli’s speech continued, “Nepali Congress should know that let the astrologer make the prime minister at home but Nepali people won’t allow them to form a congress led government. If it is not clear, I will move closer to the mic and speak. Nepali Congress led government won’t continue after Poush, and no one can stop the formation of a new leftist government.”
The video posted on December 14 has garnered 2941 likes, 267 users have shared it and 129 people have commented until the last count.
Newschecker found the claim to be misleading.
Fact Check /Verification
To check the veracity of the claim, Newschecker split the video into several key-frames and ran reverse searches on them. A Google reverse search on a frame led us to a video, dated December 14, 2024, posted by one Facebook user Prakash Jamkatel. On checking the video, we found that the video matched the viral video. However, we found inconsistencies in the video and couldn’t find the original video.
We, then, closely observed the video and noticed a banner reading ‘Pokhara’ hung in the background of the stage. Taking a clue from the banner, we ran a search on YouTube for relevant keywords such as ‘KP Oli Pokhara’ and found a video, dated Nov 25, 2017, posted on the YouTube channel named ‘Inside Nepal News’. On checking the video, we found that the video from 0.28-minute onwards exactly matched the viral clip sans the footage showing Sher Bahadur Deuba retorting in response to Oli’s remark.
The stage background and Oli’s speech indicated that the video showed KP Oli addressing an election assembly ahead of the General Elections held in November 2017.
Further, we ran a Google reverse search on frame showing Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba. The search led us to a video posted on Sajha Sawal, a weekly debate programme run by BBC. On checking the video, we found that the video footage from 26.52-minute to 26.54-minute exactly matched the viral video.
We also checked if Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli said anything about the change of coalition. We didn’t find any recent news reports on the possibility of the change of guard.
Thus, our findings clearly showed that the viral video is edited by merging old and unrelated clips of KP Sharma Oli’s speech from November 2017 and Sajha Sawal’s clip of Deuba. There are no cracks in the current coalition of Nepali Congress and CPN-UML. The viral video is from 2017 and shows Oli addressing an election assembly in Pokhar in 2017 when his government was not in power.
Conclusion
No, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli hasn’t recently said that a leftist alliance government would be formed after topping the current coalition, and Sher Bahadur Deuba will be the last prime minister of Congress. The viral video is from 2017.
Result: False
Sources
Prakash Jamkatel/Facebook, Dec 14, 2024
Inside Nepal News /YouTube, Nov 25, 2017
Sajha Sawal /YouTube, July 2, 2017
Ratopati /English, Nov 28, 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.
