Megha Vemuri, the class president of MIT 2025, strongly reacted to the administration’s decision to ban her from the rest of the commencement event Friday and said the institute’s decision was an overreach. Boston Globe reported that Indian-origin Vemuri replied to the email from MIT Chancellor Melissa Nobles that informed her about the ban on her and her family, and disputed that her speech was a protest from the stage. In her mail, Nobles said MIT acknowledges the right to free expression but Vemuri’s decision to “lead a protest from the state” was a violation of MIT’s time, place and manner rules for campus expression. Vemuri was scheduled to marshal Friday’s events but after her Thursday’s speech where she slammed MIT for its Israeli ties, she was not allowed at the event. This lead to a protest at the event Friday. MIT clarified that Vemuri gave a different speech to the authorities and caught the administration unawares when she delivered her charge against MIT, expressing solidarity for Palestine.
What Vemuri said in her controversial speech
Vemuri praised her classmates from the stage and told them “you showed the world that MIT wants a free Palestine”. “You called for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, and you stood in solidarity with the pro-Palestine activists on campus. You faced threats, intimidation, and suppression coming from all directions, especially your own university officials, but you prevailed because the MIT community that I know would never tolerate a genocide.”“Right now, while we prepare to graduate and move forward with our lives, there are no universities left in Gaza..We are watching Israel try to wipe Palestine off the face of the earth, and it is a shame that MIT is a part of it.”“This means that Israel’s assault on the Palestinian people is not only aided and abetted by our country, but our school. As scientists, engineers, academics, and leaders, we have a commitment to support life, support aid efforts, and call for an arms embargo, and keep demanding, now as alumni, that MIT cuts the ties,” Vemuri said.
Online trolling of Megha Vemuri from Indian commentators as well
MAGA commentators were up in arms against Vemuri as Megyn Kelly called her speech “selfish, self-aggrandizing, disrespectful & RUDE”. “So this woman hijacks the MIT graduation to make the whole thing about her personal beliefs about Israel, any insult to the Jewish students or others in attendance be damned. Selfish, self-aggrandizing, disrespectful & RUDE,” Kelly wrote. Indian commentators questioned why she wore a keffiyeh in solidarity with Palestine — being a Hindu and why she did not speak about ‘Hindus being tortured in Bangladesh’.
