‘Adding fuel to already existing fire’: Hindu-Americans push back against Zohran Mamdani

Zohran Mamdani

Prominent Hindu-Americans in New York are speaking out against mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani, accusing him of fuelling division with what they describe as “victimhood politics” and “open bigotry” toward communities he disagrees with — including Hindus.Mamdani, 33, is an Indian-origin Democrat born in Uganda who became a US citizen in 2018. If elected, he would be New York’s first Muslim mayor. But his past comments are drawing fire. He once labelled New York Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar — the first Hindu-American elected to the body — a puppet of “Hindu fascists.” In 2020, Mamdani appeared at a Times Square protest against the construction of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya; some demonstrators were caught on video chanting anti-Hindu expletives in Hindi.Lakshmi Bandlamudi, a psychology professor at LaGuardia Community College in Queens, recalled her disappointment when Mamdani clinched the Democratic nomination earlier this year.“First, as a New Yorker, he would hurt the city with reckless freebies. His comments on Hindus and Jews are terrifying, and it adds fuel to the already existing fire,” she told The New York Post.Mamdani has also sparked outrage with remarks promising to “arrest” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if elected, and with sharp criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. For Bandlamudi, the deeper issue is harmony in one of the world’s most diverse cities: “To live in harmony in a diverse city like New York — that is what matters most to the Hindu community. When one community is pitted against another, the harmony is destroyed. Mamdani is too divisive.”Others were more blunt. Satya Dosapati, a 67-year-old New Jersey telecom worker, called Mamdani “a dangerous b*****d” over his inflammatory rhetoric. In June, he helped fund an aerial banner flown over the Hudson River reading: “SAVE NYC FROM GLOBAL INTIFADA. REJECT MAMDANI.” Rahul Sur, a former United Nations officer from Manhattan, echoed those concerns: “New York is a beautiful city with people from all over the world. And then you talk about ‘globalize the Intifada’ and expect to run the most beautiful, accomplished, rich, diverse city in the world? Unbelievable.”Mamdani’s family is well known: his mother is filmmaker Mira Nair, and his father is Columbia professor Mahmood Mamdani, a Ugandan citizen of Indian origin.