Zohran Mamdani Says NYC Likely Lacks Authority to Cancel RSS Event at Madison Square Garden
New York — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said his administration is unlikely to intervene to stop an upcoming event featuring Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat at Madison Square Garden, saying the city may not have jurisdiction over a private gathering.
“I don’t support the rally, but I don’t know if the city has any jurisdiction on canceling a private event,” Mamdani told reporters Tuesday.
His comments came as a coalition of 61 civil rights, faith, community and advocacy organizations urged Madison Square Garden to cancel the Aug. 29 event.
Mamdani said he opposed political movements that he views as exclusionary and reflected on the vision of India he learned from his family.
“I also stand here as the first Indian American mayor in our city’s history, and my mother’s family is all still in India,” he said.
“The vision of India that I was taught by my family, and the one that I grew up being very familiar with was of a pluralistic society of a secular republic that believed in the belonging of each and every person who was from India,” Mamdani said.
He added that it was “incredibly troubling to see the rise of a movement that is predicated on an exclusionary vision of any country.”
Mamdani said he was “in deep opposition” to such a movement both as an Indian American and as mayor of one of the country’s most diverse cities.
Brad Lander, the Democratic nominee for New York’s 10th Congressional District, City Council Member Shahana Hanif and representatives of Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Dalit and Christian groups also joined the campaign against the event at a news conference outside City Hall.
Lander invoked Madison Square Garden’s hosting of a German American Bund rally in 1939 and said the venue “should not host this one.”
Hanif said members of New York’s South Asian communities had experienced what she described as the effects of “the hateful ideology and violence associated with the RSS.”
Amin Zama of the Indian American Muslim Council said the campaign was aimed at an ideology rather than Hindus as a religious community.
“Our message today is not against Hindus,” Zama said. “Our message is against an ideology that seeks to define citizenship and national belonging through religious identity.” (Source: IANS)
