Mayor Mamdani opposes NYC event with leader of India's Hindu nationalist group

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said on Tuesday he did not support an upcoming event in his city featuring the leader of the Hindu nationalist group that is the ideological parent of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Mohan Bhagwat, chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), is scheduled to speak at a Manhattan event on Saturday, according to the event’s website.

“I don’t support the rally, but I don’t know if the city has any jurisdiction on cancelling a private event,” Mamdani, who is the first Muslim and Indian American mayor of New York City, said when asked if the event should be cancelled.

“The vision of India that I was taught by my family and 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. And it has been incredibly troubling to see the rise of a movement that is predicated on an exclusionary vision.”

The event’s website casts the August 29 gathering as the “Universal Oneness Celebration” bringing together the Hindu American community.

The organisers, American Hindus for Engagement and Dialogue, say the event is backed by several Hindu American groups and promotes shared heritage and interfaith unity. Many local organisations have criticised it over Bhagwat’s attendance and the RSS’ history.

The RSS, a powerful Hindu group from which Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP emerged, said in May it had organised foreign visits, including to the US, to counter perceptions it is a paramilitary outfit involved in attacks on minority communities.

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom says the RSS “has been involved in acts of extreme violence and intolerance against members of minority groups for decades”.

The RSS disputes intolerance accusations and says it is a “Hindu-centric civilisational, cultural movement” whose goal is to “carry the nation to the pinnacle of glory”, including by uniting Hindus.

United Nations and human rights groups say abuse of Indian minorities has risen in recent years, pointing to rising hate speeches, a religion-based citizenship law, the demolition of Muslim-owned properties, the removal of occupied Kashmir’s autonomy and an anti-conversion legislation that challenges freedom of belief.

The BJP-led Indian government denies being discriminatory and says its policies, including food subsidy programmes and electrification drives, benefit all communities.