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
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Parachanda’ makes revelation that monarchy would be reinstated in the country.
Fact
Viral video is created by falsely misconstruing an interview of pro-monarchy Rastriya Prajatantra Party leader.
A video claiming that Prime Minister and Chairman of CPN (Maoist Centre) Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ has made a revelation that the monarchy would be reinstated in the country is going viral on TikTok. The video surfaces even as some pro-monarchy forces echo their commitment to reinstate monarchy in the country amid growing disillusionment with the political parties.
Nepal became a republic in 2008
The first meeting of the first Constituent Assembly (CA) on May 28, 2008 declared the abolition of the 240-year-old institution of monarchy, and Nepal became a republican country. The CA election was held as per the interim constitution adopted after signing a peace agreement between the former underground rebel Maoists and the political parties in 2006.
Against this backdrop, TikTok user @raznabin3 posted a video showing visuals of Pushpa Kamal Dahal and deposed King Gyanendra Shah. Audio accompanying the video presented in a news bulletin style says, “Prachanda [Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal] himself has made a revelation that the monarchy would be reinstated in the country. He said that former King Gyanendra Shah would remain a ceremonial King while he would continue to assume the role of executive head of the country. He made this revelation talking to Prime Time Television. Prachanda’s remarks have sent shock waves across the political spectrum.” Text superimposed on the video reads, “Our top leaders like Prachanda, Sher Bahadur Deuba and KP Oli are rotten and thieves. They are bent on seeking ways to loot the country. All this is their game. Balen Shah [Mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City] is our King.
The video posted on October 25 has garnered 600 likes, and 78 users have shared it. The archived version of the TikTok video can be seen here.
Newschecker found the claim to be misleading.
Fact Check /Verification
To check the veracity of the claim made in the viral video, Newschecker began by checking the official website of Prime Minister and Chairman of Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) Pushpa Kamal Dahal. On checking the website, we found an article, dated November 2 2023, in which Prime Minister Dahal warns the ‘regressive forces not to dream of reversing the republic and reinstating monarchy in the country.’ The article clearly demonstrated Dahal’s obstinate commitment to the republic order for which he led a decade-long armed revolt from 1996 to 2006.
We also looked up Dahal’s X (formerly twitter) handle and didn’t find anything indicating that Dahal has decided to give up on republic set-up.
We, then, split the video into three different key frames and conducted reverse searches on them.
A reverse search on the first frame led us to an article, dated Oct 25 2023, published on Prabhavnews online which carried an image of Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) Vice Chairman Dilanath Giri. On checking the article, we found that it was based on an interview of RPP leader Giri for Prime Times HD Television. Taking a clue from it, we checked the channel and found a video of Giri’s interview published on the channel on October 25, 2023. The article and the interview exactly matched in which Giri says ‘Prachanda will rule for the next 10 years by reinstating monarchy.”
Thus, our findings show that the claim made in the viral video is only Giri’s opinion and that Prime Minister Dahal has not spoken about monarchy.
Further, we conducted another reverse search on the second image used in the viral video. The results threw up several results matching the image carried in the viral video. On checking an article published on Nepal News online, we found that the image showed Prime Minister Dahal visiting Home Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha at his residence.
The reverse search on the third image showing former King Gyanendra Shah led us to an image published on the Himalayan Times online. The image caption reads, “Former King Gyanendra Shah speaking at a press conference before leaving the Narayanhiti Palace, 14 days after the nation was declared Republic, on June 11, 2008.”
Thus, our findings clearly show that Prime Minister and Chairman of CPN (Maoist Centre) is committed to defeat anti-republic and regressive forces and has not spoken about reinstating monarchy in the country.
Conclusion
The video claiming that Pushpa Kamal Dahal will reinstate monarchy in Nepal and rule the country as the executive is misleading. The viral video is created by using unrelated images and falsely interpreting an interview of pro-monarchy Rastriya Pratantra Party leader.
Result: False
Sources
Prabhavnews October 25, 2023
Nepal News October 25, 2023
The Himalayan Times June 11, 2008
Prime Times HD /YouTube October 25, 2023
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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.
