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
UCPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ leading the protest of cooperatives victims.
Fact
Viral video shows UCPN (Maoist Centre)’s warning assembly against the government.
A 13-second video allegedly showing UCPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman and former Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ allegedly taking the lead of financial cooperatives victims is going viral on TikTok.
People defrauded by credit cooperatives have been protesting for over a year in various places of the country including Kathmandu, demanding government action to recover their savings.
A Parliamentary Special Committee formed in 2024 to look into Misuse of Co-operatives Saving concluded that around Rs 87.88 billion has been embezzled by 40 cooperatives alone. Former Home Minister and Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) Chairman Rabi Lamichhane was arrested on October 18 for investigation for his alleged role in embezzling funds from cooperatives that were injected into Gorkha Media.
Against this backdrop, TikTok user @kapil_khadka_1 posted a video showing UCPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal getting down from his car and joining a mass of protesters. Another footage shows Dahal participating in a protest march alongside Maoist Vice Chairman Narayan Kaji Shrestha and Agni Prasad Sapkota. Text superimposed on the video reads, “Street demonstration: Prachanda [Pushpa Kamal Dahal] taking the leadership of the protest by cooperatives scam victims.” Audio accompanying the video presented in a live-reporting style says, “Dear viewers, UCPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda.
The video posted on November 22 has garnered 25.9k likes, and 814 people have commented on it.
Newschecker found the claim to be misleading.
Fact Check /Verification
To check the veracity of the claim made in the viral video, Newschecker took several keyframes from the viral video and ran reverse searches on Google. However, the searches didn’t yield any relevant results.
We, then, closely observed the video and noticed the logo of Serofero on the top right corner of the video. Taking a clue from it, we looked up the YouTube channel named Serofero and found a video, dated October 26 2024, whose frame from 0.1-minute exactly matched the viral video. On checking the full video, we found that the video showed Pushpa Kamal Dahal attending the protest assembly organised by his party at Exhibition Road in Kathmandu to warn the government against growing irregularities, corruption and bad governance.
Further, we found an article, dated October 26, 2024, published on Khaburhub online. The article reported that, addressing the warning assembly in Kathmandu, Dahal remarked the government move to arrest RSP Chair Rabi Lamichhane and sparing the leaders of Nepali Congress and CPN-UML, found guilty by the parliamentary committees, is discriminatory.
We also found an article, dated October 26, 2024, published on the Rising Nepal online reported on the protest oragnised by the UCPN (Maoist Centre) in Kathmandu.. The article carries a photo capturing the banner in the background which read ‘Warning Assembly against corruption, irregularities and government’s anti-people moves.”
Thus, our findings clearly indicated that the viral video shows a clip from the protest organised by the Maoists in October to warn the government. It has nothing to do with the cooperative fraud victims.
Conclusion
No, the viral video doesn’t show UCPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Prachanda taking the lead of cooperative fraud victims. The viral video actually shows him joining the warning assembly organised by his party in Kathmandu on October 26.
Result: False
Sources
Serofero /YouTube, Oct 26, 2024
Khabarhub, Oct 26, 2024|
Kathmandu Post, Nov 20, 2024
Rising Nepal, Oct 26, 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.
