Is this really Vijay Singh, an IAS officer talking about the climate movement in Glasgow?

Vijay Singh IAS is not speaking in the video.The historian and journalist Vijay Prashad was speaking at the COP26 summit in Glasgow in 2021.

A video of a person speaking about the climate movement and laying down a severe criticism of the West for its effect on climate change is going viral across social media. Users who share the video claims that he is an IAS officer Vijay Singh, speaking for our country in Glasgow, UK. In the video, Vijay is heard talking about everything the West has taken resources and money from India for centuries, and how, in the present, they continue to condescend India and other developing nations for their contributions to climate change.

The caption of the post states that “See the daring of an Indian official on international platform in Glasgow. Salute toVijay Singh, IAS. What a choice of Indian Government to send such IAS person ”. 

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Fact Check-

We conducted a reverse image search on Google with the keyframes of the video and the results led us to a report published by News18 on 22 November, 2021, that featured the image of the same person seen speaking in the viral video. According to the report that the video was shot during Indian historian and journalist Vijay Prashad’s participation in a panel discussion at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) held in Glasgow, Scotland, from October 31 to November 13. The report also notes that the historian pointed out that the United States makes up 4 to 5% of the world’s population but still uses 25% of global resources.

In further search, we found the same video uploaded on the YouTube channel “COP26 Coalition”. As per the description, the man speaking is Vijay Prashad from Tricontinental Institute for Social Research and he was speaking at the COP26 Coalition’s People’s Summit for Climate Justice.

We also discovered this video on the  official website and Facebook page of Climate Justice UK. Vijay Prasad spoke at the COP26 Coalition Summit for Climate Justice Event ‘Our Time is Now’ in Glasgow, UK on November 9, 2021.The viral video starts at 26:44 in the original video.

Next we looked up Vijay Prashad’s Twitter handle, which he describes as the director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, a journalist, and the editor of LeftWord Books, a Marxist publishing house based in New Delhi. Looking through his Twitter page, Prashad, in a tweet dated January 29, commented on the virality of the video saying, “This video of me from Glasgow has gone so viral in Indian right-wing WhatsApp groups that I am hearing from people I have not heard from in over thirty years”

We later checked the IAS officers named Vijay Singh and discovered that the name Vijay Singh was used by multiple officers. A prominent IAS officer called Vijay Singh is a 1970-batch officer of the Madhya Pradesh cadre. He was the defence secretary between 2007 and 2009; secretary, ministry of road, transport, and highways; and chief secretary to the MP government.

Taking account of these evidences we can clearly understand that the man in the viral video is historian Vijay Prashad and not an IAS officer.

Conclusion-

Fact Crescendo discovered that the claim made along the viral video to be Misleading. Vijay Singh IAS is not speaking in the video. The historian and journalist Vijay Prashad was speaking at the COP26 summit in Glasgow in 2021.