New York, Aug 26: New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has said he does not support the planned event at Madison Square Garden featuring RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, who is scheduled to address the Indian diaspora.
Mamdani, however, noted that the city may not have jurisdiction to cancel the “private” event.
Bhagwat, who arrived in the US on Tuesday, is visiting the country as part of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s (RSS) centenary-year global outreach programme. His outreach tour also includes Canada and the UK.
In the US, he is scheduled to address a gathering of around 5,000 people at the iconic Madison Square Garden (MSG) on August 29.
The planned appearance has drawn criticism from several civil rights organisations.
“I don’t support the rally, but I don’t know if the city has any jurisdiction on cancelling a private event,” Mamdani said at a press conference here on Tuesday, responding to a question on the RSS chief’s planned event and protests against it.
The Indian-origin mayor was asked whether the MSG event should be cancelled.
Mamdani, who described himself as the first Indian-American mayor in New York City’s history, said his mother’s family is still in India.
He said the vision of India he was taught by his family and grew up familiar with was that of “a pluralistic society” and “a secular republic” that believed in the belonging of each and every person from India.
The NYC mayor said it had been “incredibly troubling” to see the rise of a movement based on an “exclusionary vision”.
He said he was in “deep opposition” to it both as an Indian-American and as mayor of a city that believes deeply in the belonging of every person, regardless of their colour, creed, religion, faith or where they are from.
Several interfaith and civil rights organisations – which include Hindus for Human Rights, Indian American Muslim Council and Interfaith Centre of New York, among others – have opposed Bhagwat’s appearance at MSG and urged the iconic venue to cancel the event.
AHEAD Forum, which is a public policy and research trust, is hosting Bhagwat in the US, under the banner Universal Oneness Celebration. It said in a social media post that the RSS chief’s August 29 event “carries a timeless and universal message: The world is one family”, as it called upon people to look beyond “artificial divisions and differences”. (PTI)
