Viral Video Claiming That Darjeeling Leaders Ready To Merge With Nepal Is Misleading

Claim
Gorkha leaders of Darjeeling said they are ready to merge into Nepal.
Fact
No, viral video is made up by combining clips and shared with false text laid on it.

A video claiming that leaders of Darjeeling district in West Bengal state of India have said that they are “ready to merge with Nepal” is going viral on TikTok.

TikTok user @user1736939653311 posted a video carrying several clips including a photo of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The video carries clips of leaders from India’s North East regions—Darjeeling, Kalimpong—such as Bharat Dong, and Vikramadi Rai.  Text superimposed on the video reads, “Various political leaders active in Darjeeling have expressed their readiness to merge into Nepal. Darjeeling leaders are desperate to merge into Nepal.” Audio accompanying the video says, “Leaders active in Darjeeling region of India have said that they want independence from India or they are ready to merge into Nepal. They have expressed their opinions through social media.” The video shows Vikramdhi Rai saying, “A separate state should be formed as per schedule 5. If not, separate us from Bengal according to what you have mentioned in the constitution in 1975. Because of your non-sense political concept, your future generations will bear the brunt.”  

The video posted on June 4 has garnered 3705 likes, 473 users have shared it and 244 people have commented until the last count.

Newschecker found the claim to be misleading.

Fact Check /Verification

Nepali speaking leaders have been campaigning for a separate Gorkhaland state in West Bengal for a long time.

To check the veracity of the claim, we ran a key-word search for ‘Bharat Dong’ and found a video, dated Jan 7, 2025, posted on the Facebook page of Summit Times. On checking the video, we found the footage from 15:39-minute 15:41-minute exactly matched the clip carried in the viral video.

The 24:47-minute long video showed Bharat Dong, a senior leader of the Gorkha Rastriya Congress, issuing an ultimatum that if the Sikkim State Government and the Central Government do not intend to merge Darjeeling with Sikkim, then the community seeks to leave India.

We also found a news article, dated January 8, 2025, posted on India Today online carrying a photo resembling the frame from the viral video showing Dong.

The news reported that the Gorkha Rashtriya Congress (GRC), led by Bharat Dong, has issued a one-month deadline to the governments of Sikkim and India to address the demand for either statehood for Darjeeling or its merger with Sikkim.
However, we did not find any reference of Dong expressing his readiness to merge with Nepal.

As the viral video carries a clip of Gorkha political figure Bikramadi Rai, we ran a Key-world search for ‘Bikramadi Rai’ and found a post, dated Jan 9, 2025, on his Facebook page. On checking the video, we found that the video from 7:18-minute to 7:58-minute timestamp exactly matched the clip carried in the viral video.

In the video, Gorkha Seva Sena leader Bikramadi Rai is heard advocating for the constitutional recognition of the Gorkha community, including the unification of Darjeeling and Sikkim and the separate Gorkhaland movement. But Rai doesn’t say anything related to Nepal or readiness to merge with Nepal.

Thus, our findings clearly show that the viral video is edited by combining clips of disgruntled political figures of North East India including Bharat Dong and Bikramadi Rai advocating for the merge of Darjeeling and Sikkim or a separation of Darjeeling from West Bengal.

Conclusion

No, Gorkha leaders and campaigners have never said that they are “ready to merge into Nepal”. The viral video is misleading as it is made up by editing clips of disgruntled leaders talking about the demands for separation of Darjeeling from Bengal and the formation of a separate state or merger with Sikkim.

Sources
Summit Times /Facebook , Jan 7 , 2025
India Today, Jan 8, 2025
Bikramaadi Rai /Facebook, Jan 9, 2025