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
Veteran actor Rajesh Hamal lashes out Rastriya Swatantra Party Chair Rabi Lamichhane.
Fact
Viral video shows Artist Hamal condemning old politicians in general.
A viral video allegedly shows artist Rajesh Hamal taking a swipe at Rastriya Swatantra Party Chair and Home Minister Rabi Lamichhne is going viral on TikTok.
TikTok user @healthynepalhub posted a video showing an interview of actor Raajesh Hamal. Text superimposed on the video reads, “Rajesh Hamal’s censure of Rabi Lamichhane. Rajesh Hamal has come down heavily upon Rabi Lamichhane after he demonstrated that he is also similar to the old politicians who only talk and do nothing.” In the interview, Hamal says, “The people who are chosen to steer the nation are only talking tall. What we are noticing now is that the politicians are in politics only because of their oratory skills. They have done nothing. How long shall we listen to their oratory? There is a saying in English ‘You can fool some people for some time but you can’t fool all the people all the time.’ It has been more than 20 years that we are seeing the same faces, same assurances and same slogans. They have been repeating the same things that they were saying 15 years ago…”
The video posted on April 12 has garnered 4893 likes, 280 users have shared it and 558 users have commented until the last count.
Newschecker found the claim to be misleading.
Fact Check /Verification
To check the authenticity of the claim made in the viral video, Newschecker split the video into several keyframes and conducted reverse searches on them. But the search didn’t yield any results.
We, then, ran a search on YouTube using relevant key-phrases and found a video, dated March 5, 2024, published on the YouTube channel named ‘Mazzako TV’. On checking the video thoroughly, we found that the interview from 20.48-minute onwards exactly matched the viral video. On listening to the entire interview, nowhere does actor Rajesh Hamal utters Rabi Lamichhane’s name.
Further, we also noticed that the logo of ‘Mazzako TV’ on the microphone being used to interview artist Hamal, lending credence to the fact the viral video was clipped from the interview.
Thus, our findings show that the interview shows artist Hamal expressing his aversion towards Nepali politics and old politicians in general.
Conclusion
No, Actor Rajesh Hamal didn’t lash out at RSP Chair Rabi Lamichhane. The viral video actually shows Hamal criticising the Nepali politicians and the repetition of political slogans.
Result: False
Sources
Mazzako TV/YouTube, March 5, 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.
