Top medal winner flags 'genocide' by Israel at IIT-Madras convocation

CHENNAI: The 61st convocation ceremony of the Indian Institute of Technology - Madras witnessed some unexpected scenes here on Friday as one of the top medal winners, Dhananjay Balakrishnan, used the occasion for some plain-speaking on Israel war and collateral damage caused by tech giants, much to the discomfort of the academicians present, including chief guest Nobel laureate Brian K Kobilka.

Delivering his acceptance speech after receiving the Governor's Prize for the best all-round proficiency in curricular and extracurricular activities in Dual Degree in Mechanical Engineering, on the convocation dais of IIT-Madras – where as many as 2,636 students graduated this year, Dhananjay accused the multinational corporates of helping Israel against Palestine.

"This is a call for action. Genocide is taking place on a large scale in Palestine. Innocents are dying in large numbers and there is no end in sight," he said adding: "Why should we be bothered, you may ask. Because STEM as a field in itself has historically been used to advance the ulterior motives of the imperial powers such as Israel," he said.

Pointing out the tech giants's role in the Israel-Palestine war, the IIT-M student said, "As engineering students, we work very hard to get top-level jobs with these corporates that offer lucrative pay and great benefits. However, they control various aspects of our lives today as you know better than anyone. Many of these prestigious companies are also directly and indirectly implicated in the war against Palestine by providing the state of Israel with technology, technology that is used to kill."

"As engineers graduate into the real world, it is our job to be aware of the consequences of work we do and to interrogate our position in these complex systems of power imbalance. I hope we can incorporate this awareness more into our daily lives, attempting to understand what we can do to liberate the oppressed on lines of caste, class, creed, and gender. I believe that is the first step to curb the never-ending cycle of suffering," he noted.

"I hope you and I and all of us can take action to make the right decisions, however hard they may be," he signed off.