The 26-year-old was allegedly disciplined for an essay on “On Pacifism,” in a pro-Palestinian student-run magazine, as well as his interactions with a Lockheed Martin recruiter during a career fair on campus.
Prahlad Iyengar, an Indian American student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has been suspended from the prestigious university for allegedly writing a pro-Palestine essay in a student-led magazine. The 26-year-old Ph.D. student in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, says his suspension will terminate his his five-year National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. Iyengar is set to graduate in 2028, according to his LinkedIn page. He graduated from Georgia Institute of Technology in 2022, with a B.S. in Electrical, Electronics and Communications Engineering.
🚨🚨 MIT is effectively expelling PhD student Prahlad Iyengar for Palestine activism on campus. 🚨🚨
Iyengar wrote an essay on “On Pacifism,” in Written Revolution, a pro-Palestinian student-run magazine, of which he is one of the editors. It was founded during last spring’s protest at MIT. While Iyengar wrote in his essay that pacifist tactics might not be the best course for Palestine, he did not “directly call for violent resistance,” according to The Commune Magazine. He believes that ‘the Palestinian struggle, in particular, requires more than pacifist tactics, and that acts of resistance, including property damage or even armed struggle, can be necessary to challenge colonial oppression,” the magazine said. “By acknowledging the role of sacrifice and the need for diverse forms of resistance, Iyengar suggests that strategic violence can complement nonviolence in efforts to dismantle oppressive systems,” the magazine added.
In an email sent to the editors of the Written Revolution, David Warren Randall, dean of Student Life said the latest issue featured imagery and language that “could be interpreted as a call for more violent or destructive forms of protest at MIT.” The email added that Iyengar’s article contained images that had a logo of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which is a terrorist organization, according to the U.S. State Department. But Iyengar maintains that the photos were not provided by him, according to a statement shared by his lawyer Eric Lee on social media. MIT ended up banning not just Iyengar’s article but the entire magazine itself.
MIT suspends student & bans student publication for article opposing Gaza genocide, claims article supports "terrorism."
Read this statement from my client Prahlad Iyengar detailing the facts of this chilling attack on free speech. Now more than ever we must defend 1st Am!
In a separate statement, distributed by the MIT Coalition Against Apartheid (CAA), Iyengar accused MIT of weaponizing the disciplinary system to persecute him. His article “attempts a historical review of the type of tactics used by protest movements throughout history, from the civil rights movement to the struggle to the fight [sic] against South African Apartheid here on MIT campus,” he said.
According to CAA, Iyengar is now appealing his case with the chancellor to reduce the unjust sanctions against him. The group has launched a campaign to put pressure on MIT’s administration “to stop criminalizing students who stand on the right side of history.” It “calls on all organizations and institutions of conscience to sign up and stand up to MIT’s repression,” the group said in a statement
There is not much information on Iyengar’s family or his personal life, but his social media posts show a change in his appearance around 2000 during the the Black Lives Matter movement, following the death of George Floyd. Earlier photos of Iyengar show him in a short haircut, while some of the latest photos and videos posted to his social media show him with long hair and a pierced septum. In some of the videos, he is also seen wearing a keffiyeh. Iyengar was also suspended last year following the pro-Palestine rallies.
‘Intense and Unfair’ Disciplinary Proceedings
In a video Iyengar, posted on the MIT Coalition for Palestine. Iyengar said that for the past few months he’s been subjected to “a pretty intense and very unfair disciplinary proceedings at the hands of the Division of Student Life and the committee on Disciple (COD). He said his case is “one out of many that have had this level of unfairness, injustice and demonstrated a crackdown on free speech, especially regarding Palestine at universities.” Additionally it “demonstrates the pattern on crackdowns against Palestinian expression or expression for Palestinian liberation across universities including MIT.”
But it was not just his essay that got him suspended, Iyengar said. He was disciplined for his interactions with weapons manufacturer Lockheed Martin during a career fair on campus in September. Speaking about the incident, he that after he had a conversation with one of the Lockheed Martin recruiters, he was “accused of harassment and ion intimidation and possibly even threats” because “we spoke briefly about ethical concerns involving the role defense work, and what’s been going on in the U.S. in particular, especially Lockheed Martin’s role in that.”
He feels that “in some level the company is complicit in the genocide going on in Palestine,” he said, but noted that his behavior was “no different than any other student who attends the career fair and asks questions about the nature of the work at their persecutive employer.” He accused the COD about making its determination “in contradiction to the video evidence” of the career fair footage. “But they rejected my testimony in favor of the accusations,” he said. “We are in moment of moral urgency and cannot delay the truth any longer,” he said, talking about Palestine.
“Universities crackdown on pro-Palestine speech because they want to distract from their own complicity and genocide in Gaza,” he said. MIT has” ongoing contracts with the Israeli Ministry of Defense,” he said, and accused the university of “constantly courting war profiteers.” And as it “cannot hide from its own complicity, it decides to throw its students under the bus and conduct disciplinary procedures against them, and eject them from their communities, he said.
Iyengar received some criticism on social media, especially from Hindus for “going woke and brainwashed by Middle East nonsense.”
Prahlad iyer before going woke and brainwashed by Middle East nonsense
He was suspended by @MIT for supporting terr@r groups
One user called him out for “pushing leftist propaganda for years, evident in his posts showing his shift to a complete ‘woketard,” and risking “everything for such movements while ignoring his own community’s plight”
Prahlad Iyengar has been pushing leftist propaganda for years, evident in his posts showing his shift to a complete "woketard."
Anther user even warned parents to be “mindful over what your child’s school is teaching them and how,” to avoid having a Prahlad Iyengar “happening at home.”
You want to prevent a Prahlad Iyengar from happenning at home? Start early. Be mindful over what your child's school is teaching them and how. Act in time.
Exhibit: Class 1 text book content in a so called International School. Another huge reason why I changed daughter's school… pic.twitter.com/srtns7CCDe
