Zohran Mamdani, the Indian-origin Democrat and socialist running for New York City mayor, remains a vocal critic of US policies, particularly on Islamophobia, police surveillance of Muslims, and refugee rights.
He is the first Muslim immigrant candidate in NYC’s mayoral race, and his campaign is centred on making the major city an affordable place.
He promises to turn the city into a more affordable place, offering low rents, free bus and grocery services, as well as police reforms.
One of his interesting decisions is keeping himself away from financial aid from major companies for his mayoral campaign.
Zohran is the son of an Indian-Ugandan historian and a professor at Columbia University, Mahmood Mamdani. His mother is acclaimed Indian-American filmmaker Mira Nair, who directed the classic Salaam Bombay.
In some TV interviews, he had openly termed the Israeli aggression against Palestinians in Gaza “genocide” and vowed to arrest Israeli PM Netanyahu if he comes to NYC under his mayoralship.
Furthermore, he had also labelled Indian PM Narendra Modi a “war criminal” just like Netanyahu for the 2002 Gujarat riots.
“New York is definitely ready for a change,” said Zohran, speaking on the Geo News programme “Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Sath”, detailing that his entire campaign is focused on making NYC an affordable city, freezing rent, making buses free, and delivering universal healthcare.
He went on to say: “More and more New Yorkers are being priced out, pushed out of this city, and they are ready for new generational leadership […] they know Muslims are just like every other New Yorker … they deserve quality and respect … and ultimately, it’s time to show that this city’s politics can look like the city itself.”
The 33-year-old New York State Assemblyman alleged that the corporate packs and billionaires are focused on trying “to divide the New Yorkers”. With only seven days left in the polls, he and his opponent, Andrew Cuomo, are in a single-digit race.
He claimed that Cuomo’s campaign is receiving millions of dollars from Republican billionaires, which is being used to design mailers that artificially lengthen and darken my beard to ask New Yorkers to be afraid of me.
Ruling out Cuomo’s claims about him being an inexperienced candidate for mayor, Zohran said that he’s experienced in fighting for working-class New Yorkers and delivering for them. He added that he fought for the thousands of taxi drivers and secured $450 million in debt relief for them.
Regarding Jewish American voters living the NYC, he said that there was a wide diversity of opinion on the topic of Israeli actions against Palestinians in Gaza.
The mayoral candidate said that many of them are echoing the same findings by Israeli historians, adding that they are “echoing the words of a former Israeli prime minister, who just a few weeks ago said that what we’re doing in Gaza is a war of devastation […] limitless, indiscriminate, criminal and cruel killing of civilians.
He said that his campaign brought together Jewish, Muslim, and all New Yorkers from all backgrounds to topple a political dynasty. He also said that his criticism will always come from his belief in universal human rights.
“My criticism of PM Modi has been how he has sought to divide Indians and often erase the place of Indian Muslims in the country of India.”
He said that they proposed raising $10 billion in new taxes by matching the NYC corporate tax rate to New Jersey and by increasing tax on the top 1% of New Yorkers, and planned to get fiscal independence to rely less on the central government.
