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
CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli and CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who is also the Prime Minister, forge a deal to allow the latter to lead the coalition government for five years.
Fact
The political leaders have not forged such an agreement. Rather, the CPN-UML has pulled out of the government after Dahal refused to support the CPN-UML candidate for the presidential election.
A video claiming that Communist Party of Nepal -Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) Chairman KP Sharma Oli and Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) Chairman and Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ have agreed to allow Dahal to take the government leadership for a full five-year term and support the CPN-UML candidate for the post of president. Newschecker found the claim to be false.
The election for the post of president is scheduled for March 9. Nepali Congress candidate Ram Chandra Poudel and CPN-UML candidate Subas Chandra Nembang are contesting for the post of president.
Against this backdrop, TikTok user @govindakafle92 posted a video showing images of Nepali politicians including KP Sharma Oli, Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Sher Bahadur Deuba. Text superimposed on the video reads, “Agreement between Prachanda and Oli. Prachanda to take government leadership for a full five-year term and CPN-UML to take the post of President. Nepali Congress’ dream shattered, Rabi [Rastriya Swatantra Party President Rabi Lamichhane] to get the post of Home Minister.” Audio accompanying the video presented in a news bulletin style says, “KP Oli and Prachanda forged a deal to allow the latter to take the government leadership for five years. The dream of Nepali Congress has been shattered.”
The video posted on February 18 has garnered 3847 likes, 36 users have shared the video and 46 people have commented on it until the time of publishing this article.
The archived version of the TikTok video can be seen here.
Fact Check /Verification
To check the veracity of the claim made in the viral video, Newschecker took several keyframes of the images used in the video and conducted a reverse search which threw up several results. On checking an article carrying the same image published in Radio Nepal online on 11 January 2023, we found that Dahal had visited Oli’s residence in Balkot. However, we didn’t find any news confirming that Dahal and Oli had struck a deal on supporting a common candidate from the CPN-UML for the post of President.
Then, we conducted a reverse search on another image which led us to an article published on Le Monde, a French news website, on 25 December, 2022. The article carrying the AFP image used in the viral video was shot after the CPN (Maoist Centre) and CPN-UML agreed to form a new coalition government led by Dahal earlier in December.
Further, we checked the current political situation of Nepal and found that the CPN-UML pulled out of the Dahal-led coalition government on February 27 after the change in political equation in the lead up to the presidential election.
We also found that the CPN-UML was riled by the decision of PM Dahal’s party CPN (Maoist Centre) to support the Nepali Congress candidate for the post of president.
Our findings indicate that no deal has been struck between Dahal and Oli to continue the coalition and allow Dahal to take the government leadership for a full term, and neither he has assured to support the CPN-UML candidate in the March 9 presidential election. The images of Dahal and Oli used in the video are old and unrelated.
Conclusion
The viral video claiming that Dahal and Oli have agreed to support Dahal to be at the helm of government for a full five-year term in exchange for his support to the CPN-UML candidate in the presidential election is misleading.
Result: False
Sources
The Kathmandu Post, 26 February, 2023
Radio Nepal Online, 11 January, 2023
Le Monde 25 December, 2022
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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.
