The Mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, was elected on a “socialist” agenda of making life affordable for people. But what he did on day one was make a large section of population of the city, the Jewish community, feel unsafe and insecure through his administrative orders. This also reveals his real and larger agenda that goes much beyond “affordability”.
As Mayor of a city, no matter how big it may be, he should be least concerned about what is happening in a far-off country. Yet, he has already stirred another controversy by writing to Umar Khalid and expressing solidarity with him. Khalid has been jailed for anti-national activities and is facing trial. His bail applications have been repeatedly rejected by courts in India. A large section of people across India have questioned Zohran’s locus standi, and rightly so, on writing to Khalid, as it amounts to interference in India’s internal affairs.
Mamdani may be posing and projecting himself as a ‘social democrat’, which he is. At the same time, he espouses his Muslim identity in a more prominent and aggressive way. He identifies himself as a defiant and “unapologetic” Muslim always, often crying victimisation and Islamophobia. Although he has mixed parentage, with his mother being Hindu and his father a Shia Muslim, he identifies himself only as a Muslim.
His only link to India is his mother, the eminent filmmaker Mira Nair. Otherwise, his ancestors from his father’s side left India for Uganda many generations ago. Since his claims to South Asian ancestry mixed with his Muslim identity suited him better in the mayoral elections, given New York City’s significant Muslim and South Asian population, he rarely mentioned his Ugandan ancestry, as that would not have helped him politically.
While Mamdani did raise Khalid’s issue, he chose not to comment on or react to the lynching of Hindus in Bangladesh. While the US government officially condemned the lynching of a Hindu youth, Mamdani chose to remain silent, since the victim was not a Muslim.
Mamdani has a characteristic way of playing up “Muslim victimhood” and Islamophobia. He even used the post-9/11 aftermath to his advantage, claiming that Muslims were being stereotyped and linked with terrorism. He shared the example of his “aunt”, claiming she avoided using the subway train to avoid racial taunts and victimisation. He was later fact-checked, as he did not have any aunt living in New York. This exposed how he concocts narratives to suit his agenda.
As already mentioned, despite having practically no link with India or Gujarat, from where his ancestors migrated to Uganda many generations ago, he falsely claimed that Muslims were exterminated in Gujarat under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tenure as Chief Minister. He even compared Prime Minister Modi with Benjamin Netanyahu and described him as a war criminal. For that matter, even Netanyahu is not a war criminal; he is protecting his country and its people from terrorists.
Immediately after taking over as Mayor of New York City, Mamdani revoked several executive orders of his predecessor, Eric Adams, clearly showing his hostility towards Israel and the Jewish. After the October 7 Hamas terror attack on Israel, which left about 1,200 innocent people dead, and the subsequent Gaza War, Jews were targeted by pro-Palestinian protesters. Mamdani cancelled an order that provided special protection to Jewish synagogues by creating “protest-free zones” around them. Mamdani revoked the order on the first day of taking over.
The Muslim Mayor of New York City also cancelled another Adams-era order that had adopted the definition of “anti-Semitism” in accordance with the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), which classified certain criticisms of Israel like denying its right to exist as a Jewish state as anti-Semitic. This virtually takes away the protection against anti-Semitism.
These are just a few of the actions Mamdani took on his first day as Mayor of New York City. And these were never his priorities and promises during the campaign. He became the Mayor on the promise of making the bus travel free, freezing the rents of apartments, making the childcare free and making the groceries cheaper and affordable.
Mamdani’s agenda is not hidden anymore. None of these things were necessary in any way. Rather these would lead to victimisation of the Jewish community in the city that is mostly identified with them. The fears that the community had about Mamdani becoming a Mayor, have sadly come true sooner than expected.
It is about 25 years since the 9/11 terror attacks took place when the Muslims faced a severe backlash since the terrorists involved were Muslims only. It has come to a full circle that the same Muslims who were stereotyped, just because some people who happened to be Muslims attacked New York at such a large scale, have now got the voice in Mamdani. That is the greatness of the American democracy that it does not discriminate against anyone. But this liberty is fraught with certain dangers also. The same liberty is used against the same values that guarantee it.
It may sound strange that New York City now has a Mayor who appears to echo the voice of Hamas, an organisation no different from Al-Qaeda, which carried out the epochal act of terror against the city 25 years ago.
Mamdani has revealed himself that he is not just a “social democrat”, he is much more than that. His agenda is not just socialist, but much more than that. He has used his “democratic socialist” theme for pursuing a much different agenda. During the campaign, people only saw his democratic socialist agenda.
They have already started seeing his other agenda, which he is likely to intensify in coming days. Is he just wearing a "socialist democrats' cloak", only time will tell.
Also Read: To win, Mamdani weaved socialist, Islamic message together
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