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
Pushpa Kamal Dahal said he never liked republic and the adoption of federalism with proportional representation system in the country
Fact
Dahal was actually referring to KP Sharma Oli, who allegedly confided to him that he never liked republic and federalism
A viral video showing Prime Minister and Chairman of Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ saying that he never “liked the republic and accepted it only because of obligation and want to revoke it should any chance arise” is going viral among Nepali social media users.
TikTok user @jaynepal622 posted a video showing Prime Minister and Chairman of CPN (Maoist Centre) Dahal delivering a speech against the republic. In the video clip, Dahal says, “I never liked this republic set-up , and accepted it only because of circumstantial compulsion. It would be revoked should any chance arise. Neither I like the federal democratic republic nor do I like the reservation of quotas for women, indigenous and Dali in the name of proportional inclusive system.” Text superimposed on the video reads, “I don’t like the republic. You hypocrite scoundrel, revoke federalism and reinstate monarchy and Hindu state”
The archived version of the TikTok video can be seen here.
The video posted on July 9 has garnered 789 likes, 206 people have shared it and 112 users commented until the last count.
We found the same video shared by one Facebook user Dinesh Yadav on July 14.
Newschecker investigation found the video to be misleading.
Fact Check /Verification
To check the veracity of the claim made in the viral video, Newschecker split the video into several keyframes and conducted reverse searches on them but the results did not match the viral video.
We, then, conducted keyword searches by using Nepali words spoken by Dahal which pointed us to an article published on the online portal of Nayapatrika daily. The article titled dated November 1, 2021, reads, “Prachanda says, Oli allegedly talked about revoking republic with the supporters of deposed King Gyanendra Shah if any chance arises.”
On checking the article, we found that CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Prachanda, speaking at a program in Kirtipur to exchange festival greetings, said that he has found out that Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) Chairman KP Sharma Oli met with supporters of deposed King Gyanendra Shah and confided that he never liked republic system and federalism in the country and would revoke it once the opportunity arises for the same. The news article also carried a YouTube video published on the channel of Nayapatrika daily in which Dahal says referring to Oli, ” [Oli] He always used to say that I am not liking this federal democratic republic system. I don’t like this allocation of reservation quota for women and Dalit in the name of proportional inclusive system.” This YouTube clip from 0.17-minute to 0.28-minute timestamp exactly matched the viral video. And another clip from 0.36-minute to 0.40-minute timestamp exactly matched with the first portion of the viral video.
Further, we found another video, dated November 1, 2021, from the same event published on the YouTube channel named NepalKhoj Online TV. The video title reads, “Prachanda says, Oli never liked the republic and he allegedly assured the supporters of former King Gyanendra that the republic order would be revoked.” On checking the video, we found that the footage from 2.39-minute onwards exactly matched the second portion of the viral.
Thus, our findings show that the video was clipped from an old video of Dahal speaking at a programme in November 2021.
Conclusion
The viral video allegedly showing Prime Minister and CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ saying that he never liked the federal democratic and republic system is clipped. In the video, Prachanda is actually referring to Oli who never liked the republic and federalism with a proportional and inclusive system in the country.
Result: Missing Context
Sources
Nayapatrikadaily online, Nov 1, 2021
Nepal Khoj Online /YouTube Nov 1, 2021
Dinesh Yadav Facebook
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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.
