Zohran Mamdani, the 33-year-old naturalised American and a person of Indian origin, hogged the media limelight after he won a Democratic primary for the New York mayor elections. Apart from being the first Muslim to be so close to becoming the first citizen of one of the richest cities in the world, Mr Mamdani attracted intense media scrutiny for welfare policies and his remarks on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Labelled as “a 100 per cent Communist lunatic” by US President Donald Trump, Mr Mamdani’s radical ultra- Left agenda has unnerved the centrally- aligned Democrats. If he is elected as NYC mayor, he has promised to make travelling in buses free, open state- owned grocery stores to keep prices in control and build state-owned housing apartments to control the spiralling rents.For Indians, who got used to competitive welfarism among political parties, these promises may not appear preposterous. But they go against the foundational concept of American capitalism. Similar to India’s experience in welfarism, Mr Mamdani’s free-for-all policies and his anti-Israel stand have won him initial support. His win, however, could alienate the party’s centrist supporters, fear Democrats. A son of acclaimed Indian director Mira Nair, a Punjabi raised in Odisha, and Mahmood Mamdani, a Gujarati raised in Uganda, Zohran Mamdani became a US citizen, and two years later, ran for a seat in the New York state assembly in 2018. He holds virulently adversarial opinions about India and Narendra Modi. According to reports, he protested against the construction of the Ram temple at Ayodhya at Times Square. He called Mr Modi a war criminal and refused to meet him as part of the customary meeting with the city mayors. Mr Mamdani’s most controversial remark was his call for a global intifada, which attracted the strongest condemnation from all quarters. While the dictionary meaning of intifada is uprising or revolt, Mr Mamdani claims that he meant struggle and not uprising. As New York has the largest Muslim concentration in the United States at nine per cent, Mr Mamdani appears to have connected with them instantly. However, it has been proven time and again that, while strong support from one section of society could catapult a politician to the headlines, this support alone is not enough to capture power. Still, being a good orator and a hard worker, Mr Mamdani could unsettle old politics in America, if only he can temper his emotions and broaden his support base.
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