When standing on a podium does not mean giving a lecture.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: Despite Harvard University refuting the claim, Dr. Misa Bharti, daughter of Indian politician Lalu Yadav, is posturing that she gave an academic lecture at the Cambridge, Massachusetts institution. She even went to the lengths of releasing photos to Indian media outlets along with a press release that described her alleged participation in the stateside lecture series.
Photographs uploaded on Misa’s Facebook page show her on stage, apparently addressing an audience at the renowned university. One photograph is captioned in Hindi as: “Giving a lecture on the role of youth at Harvard.” The photographs, which were in fact taken after the conference, were published by newspapers in Bihar.
Harvard has called the photos a “gross misrepresentation.”
The university’s official statement read: “Misa Bharti was invited as part of the audience and not as a speaker of any panel at the India Conference at Harvard. Her attendee status can also be confirmed from the fact that she had to purchase a ticket as an audience. She was not invited to deliver any lecture.”
Misa responded to NDTV’s inquiry about the embarrassing debacle, saying she did take photos on the podium and share it with friends, but “local media got their hands on (the photos), misconstrued and built story based on those snaps.”
She told NDTV that she never claimed to be a panelist but “did share my views with panelists, personally, later on.”
Meanwhile, a spokesperson has stated “the Harvard Kennedy School Communications Department has taken cognizance and are currently looking into the matter.”