KATHMANDU, FEBRUARY 22

Nepal Army has cleared the air regarding an unproven comment circulating in social media wherein the Chief of Army Staff (CoAS) was quoted as saying that the country has found its most fearless prime minister till date, referring to Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.

"The country has found its most fearless prime minister in history so far, we take pride in this," has been shown as a direct statement made by CoAS Purna Chandra Thapa in the social media posts.

A fact checking blog, Nepal Fact Check, has however clarified that this information is not backed by any evidence whatsoever.

"We could not find any audio or video proof that would back this statement. Likewise, no news including such a statement by the army head can be traced in any media," states the fact checking portal, adding, "Moreover, those who have posted this declaration have not specified when and where the CoAS said this."

"Therefore, we categorise this claim as unproven information."

Endorsing this, Nepal Army Spokesperson, Brigadier General Santosh Ballav Poudel, shared the full text of speech given by CoAS Thapa at the opening of "Inter-agency co-ordination in border security and management" seminar. The CoAS had not made any such remark related to the prime minister, as proves the text of this speech. It may further be noted that the Prime Minister himself was attending this programme, on February 7, a day before the posts started becoming viral in social media.

In another programme, which took place later the same day, both CoAS and Prime Minister were present. However, CoAS Thapa was not scheduled to speak at all in this particular programme.

The posts, with exactly the same words, shared and re-shared by social media users have gathered multiple reactions but do not have a foundation from where they emerged.

This is not the first time that Oli supporters have resorted to disinformation to push their agenda. In a similar case, the group had made an attempt to malign the name of Narayan Wagle, a prominent figure involved in the civic movement (Brihat Nagarik Andolan) against the dissolution of House of Representatives.

In the end of January, a similar social media post was in circulation that wrongly quoted Wagle -- a renowned journalist and novelist -- as saying that construction of temples and acts of worships must be stopped to secure secularism in the country, among such misleading statements.