Prithviraj Chavan (File photo)
NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader and former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan on Monday came out in support of New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani for writing a letter to 2020 Delhi riots co-accused Umar Khalid.Chavan said that, as a person of Indian origin, Mamdani had “every right to intervene.”Also Read: Who is he to question? BJP on New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s Umar Khalid note“He (Mamdani) has faith in Indian politics. He spoke in Hindi during his campaign, appealing to Indians there. Indian blood flows in him, so if injustice is happening to an Indian, he has every right to intervene, whether he is an American citizen or not. But more importantly, human rights are supreme. So I think there’s no need to panic if he wrote a letter,” Chavan told news agency PTI. The socialist Democrat, New York City’s first Muslim and Indian-origin mayor, is the son of filmmaker Mira Nair and academic Mahmood Mamdani. The 34-year-old was sworn in on New Year’s Day after winning the mayoral election in November last year.In his handwritten note to Khalid, who has been in jail since his arrest in September 2020, months after communal riots rocked the national capital in February that year, Mamdani wrote: “Dear Umar, I think of your words on bitterness often, and the importance of not letting it consume oneself. It was a pleasure to meet your parents. We are all thinking of you.”The Supreme Court on Monday rejected the bail pleas of two Delhi riots accused—Khalid and Sharjeel Imam—and granted bail, subject to conditions, to five others. They had challenged the Delhi high court’s rejection of their pleas.Meanwhile, Chavan’s remarks come days after he drew flak for claiming that India was “defeated” on the first day of its four-day conflict with Pakistan in May 2025. He later refused to apologise despite widespread outrage.In July last year, he had also sparked controversy by questioning why anti-terror operations were being given “Hindu names.”
