MIT wants a free Palestine: MIT class president condemns Israel in bold address
Cambridge, Massachusetts: At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s 2025 commencement ceremony, Indian-American student and class president Megha Vemuri made international headlines with a powerful, politically charged address condemning Israel’s actions in Gaza and criticizing MIT’s institutional ties to the Israeli military.
Wearing a red keffiyeh, a symbol of solidarity with Palestine, Vemuri delivered her speech before thousands of graduates, faculty, and guests, declaring, “You showed the world that MIT wants a free Palestine.”
Her remarks came amidst widespread campus protests across the United States over the Gaza conflict and American universities’ connections to military and defense interests involved in the war.
“Academic institutions across the country are shrouded in a dark cloud of uncertainty,” Vemuri stated, acknowledging the fear and pressure faced by student activists. She openly accused MIT of complicity: “The Israeli occupation forces are the only foreign military that MIT has research ties with… our school is aiding and abetting genocide.”
Vemuri highlighted recent student-led votes by both undergraduate and graduate bodies at MIT urging the administration to sever ties with Israel’s military. “You faced threats, intimidation, and suppression—especially from your own university officials—but you prevailed,” she told her peers.
As she concluded, Vemuri urged her fellow graduates to turn their class rings outward—a traditional MIT gesture symbolizing readiness to face the world. This time, it carried political weight.
“We carry with us the obligation to do everything we can to stop it. MIT is directly complicit in the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people,” she said, ending her speech with a call for accountability and action.
Vemuri pointed to the total destruction of universities in Gaza as evidence of a systematic erasure: “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.”
Born and raised in Alpharetta, Georgia, Megha Vemuri has played a prominent role in MIT’s student life. In addition to serving as class president, she was involved in the class council and numerous research initiatives. Vemuri worked as a research assistant at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research and previously interned at the UCT Neuroscience Institute in South Africa.
She also participated in community-oriented educational projects, including creating a neuroscience curriculum for high school students in Jordan. At MIT, she taught artificial intelligence courses and was a member of "Written Revolution," a student group promoting socially conscious ideas.
A National Merit Scholar in 2021, Vemuri has also co-authored two academic articles on avian social behavior.
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Dileep case: Advocate representing survivor alleges Judge favoured actor
Thiruvanthapuram: A month after Malayalam film Actor Dileep was acquitted in the the case pertaining to abduction and rape of a famous Malayalam actress, Advocate T B Mini, the survivor's counsel in the case has accussed the Ernakulam Principal Sessions Court Judge Honey M Varghese of favouring Actor Dileep in her petition to the Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court, reported On Manorama.
In her petition(accessed by Onmanorama), Mini has sought contempt of court proceedings against Honey Varghese alleging that the trial court judge made derisive remarks about her, including claims that she would doze off during court proceedings and was lax in handling the actress assault case.
Mini, who described the comments as false, contemptuous and defamatory, alleged in her petition that Honey Varghese had unduly favoured Dileep, the actor and producer who was the eighth accused in the case.
In the verdict delivered in December last year, Judge Honey Varghese acquitted Dileep and three other accused while sentencing six convicts to imprisonment.
The ruling drew major uproar, while Mini had refrained from making any public remarks against the judge at the time, stating only that the verdict was disappointing, now she has levelled serious allegations against the judge as the High Court is set to begin hearing the bail pleas filed by the six convicts on February 4.
Furthermore, Mini has stated in her petition that since the very first stage of the trial, the Judge Honey Varghese passed derogatory remarks against the survivor and behaved discourteously towards the prosecution, which eventually led to the resignation of two Special Public Prosecutors. According to Mini, the undue favour shown by Honey Varghese to Dileep resulted in a serious miscarriage of justice and brought disrepute to the judicial system.
She stated in the petition that it was a regular practice of Honey Varghese to pass derogatory comments about the survivor as well as the prosecution witnesses.
Mini also alleged that on several occasions, the Special Public Prosecutor was compelled to remind the judge that such conduct was in violation of the Supreme Court’s directions.
Mini also questioned the manner in which Honey Varghese conducted the inquiry into the illegal access of the memory card containing visuals of the sexual assault.
The memory card, a vital piece of evidence kept in the custody of the Sessions Court, was unlawfully accessed and tampered with, leading to a change in its hash value.
According to the report, an examination by the State Forensic Science Laboratory found that the card had been accessed on January 9, 2018, December 13, 2018, and July 19, 2021, while it was under the safe custody of different courts.
Mini stated in the petition that the memory card was illegally accessed for nearly half an hour in July 2021 while it was in the custody of the court presided over by Honey Varghese.
After the survivor approached the High Court citing a breach of privacy, the HC directed Honey Varghese to conduct an inquiry. Mini alleged that the judge carried out only a perfunctory inquiry, in violation of the High Court’s directions.
Mini has sought legal action against Honey Varghese, stating that when a lawyer is defamed in open court through false allegations, the judge is liable to face proceedings before the High Court. She noted in the petition that although she had a very limited role in the trial as the survivor’s counsel, she regularly attended the proceedings from November 2022 onward.
