Fact Check: Manisha Koirala's Video Backing Hindu Rashtra In Nepal Is Old

An old video of Nepali actor Manisha Koirala speaking about how Nepal is a Hindu nation and criticising its secular status is being falsely peddled as a recent statement made by her during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in India. 

BOOM found that the video dates back to November 2022 and is unrelated to the ongoing Lok Sabha election. 

The viral video shows an interview where Koirala is heard talking about Nepal's status as a Hindu country and criticised its adoption of secularism. She talks about how Nepal had always been a Hindu nation and how that was a part of its identity. "In our country, there has never been a fight over religion. There is no war here, no killing, and no fights. We were a peaceful Hindu rashtra with no conflict. Why was it removed?” she says. She goes on to add that Nepal becoming a secular country felt like a "conspiracy" to her.

A user on X shared the video with the caption, “Manisha Koirala supporting Hindu Rashtra, and suggesting how the leftist/communist and congress type democracy/govts destroying Nepal..”

Click here to view the post and here for an archive. 

Another user on Facebook wrote, “Manisha Koirala is absolutely right. It was a conspiracy of Communists and Missionaries to end the Hindu Monarchy in Nepal and make it a Secular nation in order to convert the Himalayan Region into Christianity.”

Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
 

FACT CHECK 

BOOM found that the interview is from November 2022 and Koirala's statements are being falsely connected to India and the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. We ran a reverse image search of some key frames from the viral video on Google and found the link to a TikTok post that carried the text, ‘Manisha Koirala in Satya Sambad'.

Taking a cue from this, we ran a keyword search on YouTube and found the original interview shared by Nepal-based channel, Yoho Television HD on November 16, 2022. The portion from 20:42 of this original video was an exact match to the viral one.

Koirala gave this interview days before the general election in Nepal held on November 20, and this is not the first instance where she expressed her displeasure over Nepal's secular status. An Indian Express report from March 26, 2010 details how Koirala, who is also the granddaughter of Nepal's first elected Prime Minister, BP Koirala, said, “Nepal never had any dispute over the issue of religion. There was no need to change the status of the Hindu state as there was no problem in it.”

(This story was originally published by BOOM, and republished by NDTV as part of the Shakti Collective.)

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)