US Speaker reacts to Indian-American Megha Vemuri’s pro-Palestine speech: ‘Have your children avoid MIT’

Indian-American student Megha Vemuri is at the center of a major controversy as she spoke against Israel in her MIT commencement speech.

Speaker Mike Johnson reacted to Indian-origin Megha Vemuri’s pro-Palestine speech at the commencement ceremony and called it ignorant, hateful and morally bankrupt. Johnson also took MIT to task as he questioned why the institute has not properly responded to it. The Speaker was reacting to a post by MAGA commentator Megyn Kelly who criticized Vemuri’s apathy to the Jewish students attending the ceremony. “have your children avoid MIT & the Ivy League at all costs,” Johnson wrote. “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,” Megyn Kelly wrote on X as Megha Vemuri’s speech condemning her alma mater for its Israeli ties drew mixed response — several of her classmates cheered and also protested Friday as MIT banned Vemuri from attending the rest of the event. MAGA commentators, some Indian commentators and many Jewish students criticized Vemuri and questioned why she needed to do that.Vemuri gave a different speech to the MIT administration which was approved but on the stage, she delivered a different one praising her classmates for protesting against Israel. “Last spring, MIT’s undergraduate body and graduate student union voted overwhelmingly to cut ties with the genocidal Israeli military. You called for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. And you stood in solidarity with the pro-Palestinian activists on campus. You faced threats, intimidation and suppression coming from all directions, especially your own university officials,” Vemuri said.Jewish students walked out of the speech as Vemuri accused MIT of being complicit in the “ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people”.

What MIT said on Vemuri’s speech

Vemuri was barred from attending the rest of the event while MIT said they support free expression but they don’t stand by what Vemuri did. “With regard to MIT’s Commencement 2025 activities, the speech delivered by a graduating senior at Thursday’s OneMIT Commencement Ceremony was not the one that was provided by the speaker in advance. While that individual had a scheduled role at today’s Undergraduate Degree Ceremony, she was notified that she would not be permitted at today’s events,” an MIT spokesperson said Friday. “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,” MIT said.