The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has suspended an Indian-origin PhD scholar over a pro-Palestine essay he wrote within the faculty journal final month. Prahlad Iyengar, who’s barred from getting into his faculty campus, will stay suspended until January 2026, India Today reported. This would terminate his five-year National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.
Iyengar wrote an essay on the pro-Palestine motion that was revealed in Written Revolution, a multidisciplinary pupil journal. MIT believes what he wrote known as for violent protests on the campus, and the journal, too, has been banned. Iyengar reacted to the suspension, saying it highlighted the bigger situation of freedom of speech on campuses throughout America.
Who is Prahlad Iyengar?
Iyengar is reportedly pursuing a PhD from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He had been suspended final 12 months too following the pro-Palestine demonstrations.
Following Iyenger’s newest suspension, the MIT Coalition Against Apartheid began a protest. The group wrote in an X put up, “After public backlash towards Prahlad’s campus ban as a result of an article in regards to the pro-Palestine motion, MIT pivoted to suspending Prahlad on costs which were resolved as casual warnings in comparable eventualities.”
The faculty stated that Iyenger’s article ‘On Pacifism’ had language that “might be interpreted as a name for extra violent or harmful types of protests at MIT,” in keeping with an electronic mail despatched by the MIT Dean of Student Life, David Warren Randall, to the journal’s editors. The electronic mail added that the article contained photos which had a emblem of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which is a terrorist organisation, in keeping with the US State Department.
According to The Commune Magazine, Iyengar wrote in his essay that pacifist techniques won’t be one of the best course for Palestine. However, he didn’t instantly name for violent resistance.
According to Iyenger, the photographs weren’t supplied by him. “The administration accuses me of supporting ‘terrorism’, as a result of the version by which my article seems consists of photos of posters from the Popular Front for the Liberation and of containing violent imagery within the publication,” he wrote in a press release shared on social media by his lawyer Eric Lee.
“These extraordinary actions ought to concern everybody on camp,” he added. “Expelling me and banning Written Revolution from campus on account of this text would mark an unprecedented assault on the rights of your entire pupil physique and school. Consider the precedent MIT has set.”
“MIT accuses me of terrorism however how far will this label be utilized?” he questioned.
After the journal was banned too, Iyengar informed WBUR, a Boston-based radio channel, that the journal’s intention was to “put out in our phrases, what we had been doing, why we had been doing it and what was taking place on campus.”
“Prahlad is now interesting his case with the Chancellor to cut back the unjust sanctions towards him. We have launched a marketing campaign to place stress on MIT’s administration to cease criminalising college students who stand on the suitable facet of historical past. We name on all organisations and establishments of conscience to enroll and stand as much as MIT’s repression,” the MIT Coalition Against Apartheid stated in a press release.
On December 9, the coalition even held an emergency rally in help of Iyengar in Cambridge City Hill.
Netizens react
Many supported Iyenger within the remark part of the above put up. “So MIT is mainly Lockheed Martin lab and anybody who opposes this association will get expelled… received it,” one consumer wrote, whereas one other stated, “Solidarity with Prahlad. He does not should be punished merely for having a useful ethical compass, and the braveness of his convictions!” One consumer commented, “That’s so unjust. It have to be reversed asap.”
However, not everybody supported Iyenger. Many blasted his ideologies within the remark part and stated MIT took the suitable step by suspending him. “The woke virus, which has inundated the US marketing campaign, is now turning right into a illness. A pupil of Indian heritage, belonging to the caste most oppressed by Muslims, is advocating for the terrorist group Hamas. This exemplifies how Wokeism kills logic and motive,” one consumer wrote. “Good, he needs to be expelled. Terrorism has no place in civilised society. He’s free to go to Gaza or Syria if he feels so strongly,” wrote one, whereas one other stated, “Oh please arrest of him and put him in jail..” “Good job MIT!” one consumer wrote.