A mock interview video by Drishti IAS Academy is shared as real footage of the UPSC Final Oral Interview - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
July 13, 2023
A video is being shared on social media claiming that it shows the UPSC final oral interview conducted by Dr. Vikash Divyakrithi. The video shows a panellist asking an aspirant about the Advaita Vedanta philosophy of Shankaracharya. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video showing real footage of the UPSC final oral interview.
Fact: The video shared in the post shows a mock interview conducted by the Drishti IAS Academy before the UPSC 2022 examination. The video features Vikas Divyakrithi, the founder of Drishti IAS Academy, interviewing Pooja Meena, who achieved the 467th rank in the UPSC Exam 2022. The video does not show real footage of the UPSC final oral interview. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
When we searched for the video using relevant keywords on the internet, a video with similar visuals was found published by the Drishti IAS Academy YouTube channel in May 2023. This YouTube channel in the description of the video stated it is a mock interview given by UPSC 2022 topper Pooja Meena at Drishti IAS Academy before the UPSC 2022 examination. The video features Vikas Divyakrithi, the Founder and Managing Director of Drishti IAS Academy, interviewing Pooja Meena.
The description of the video states- “Pooja Meena has secured 467th rank in UPSC CSE exam 2022. The mock interview she had given at Drishti IAS Institute has been uploaded on Drishti IAS Channel. We extend our heartiest congratulations to Pooja Meena on this great achievement. We feel immense pleasure to be a part of his beautiful journey and once again we wish him all the very best for a bright future.”
A disclaimer provided at the start of the video states, “Drishti IAS invites experts from various fields for its mock interview panel. So that candidates can be given real interview-like experience and training through various questions, answers, views, and feedback. The questions, answers, and discussions do not reflect the ideology of the panellists or our organization. Drishti IAS is ideologically committed to the constitutional values” (when the text was translated from Hindi to English). A few other mock interviews published by the Drishti IAS Institute can be seen here, here, and here. From all these pieces of evidence, it can be concluded that the video shared in the post shows just a mock interview, not the final oral interview conducted by the UPSC. Further, the footage of the actual UPSC interviews is not published and they are not available in the public domain.
To sum it up, a mock interview video by Drishti IAS Academy is shared as real footage of the UPSC final oral interview.