MIT student Megha Vemuri, in an interview with CNN, has shared the aftermath of her “anti-Israel. pro-Palestine” speech at the university. After being banned from MIT’s graduation ceremony, Vemuri shared that the “MIT officials massively overstepped their roles to punish” her. She indicated that there was no “merit or due process” and “no indication of any specific policy broken.” She went on to call “MIT’s purported support of free speech hypocritical”.
While Megha took a firm stand on the MIT podium on May 29, the university took strict and immediate actions to curb the situation. This came after she received an email stating MIT’s decision on her presence at the upcoming MIT graduation ceremony.
A cause behind the clause
She expressed empathy with the Gazan students killed during the ongoing humanitarian crisis. She “sees no need for her to walk across the stage of an institution that is complicit in this genocide,” revealed a statement made by Vemuri after being banned and barred from campus temporarily.
She further shared that what she was “dealing with right now, is absolutely nothing compared to the people of Palestine”. She added that she was willing to “take on much more” if it helped the cause.
Response from MIT
A MIT spokesperson revealed that her speech was not approved a day prior to the event. However, she will receive her diploma separately as per CNN reports. “MIT supports free expression but stands by its decision, which was in response to the individual deliberately and repeatedly misleading Commencement organizers and leading a protest from the stage, disrupting an important Institute ceremony,” the read the MIT spokesperson’s statement.
All eyes on Megha
“I can handle the attention, positive and negative, if it means spreading that message further,” Vemuri told CNN. Wearing a keffiyeh, a symbol for solidarity with Palestine, her speech not only led to a widespread reaction from students present at the event, but brought global attention to the matter. From netizens questioning her Indian origin self’s silence on Pahalgam to garnering support for her speech online, it brough MIT under a global lens of scrutiny.
However, MIT is not only or primary institute in the middle of the speech showdown. Universities like Harvard have also taken similar or stricter measures to ensure students cause no such “disruption”. US President Donald Trump’s stand on antisemitic statements made by the “troublemakers” has seemingly expressed in his decision to revoke visas of international students.