What are Mamdani's views on India, Modi, and the BJP?
Zohran Mamdani, who won the mayoral elections for the New York city after defeating independent Andrew Cuomo, once took a sharp jibe at India Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a Diwali outreach programme for Hindu-American voters, saying that he grew up in India that celebrated pluralism.
Mamdani, who visited several Hindu temples in Queens for the Festival of Lights, had said that Modi and his political party, BJP, are rather leading India with a vision that the country "only has room for certain kinds of Indians", reports Economic Times.
"So, I have been critical of Mr Modi because of the vision that I grew up with was of an India that was pluralistic, an India where everyone belonged, no matter their religion. And my critique has been of Mr Modi and the BJP political party for their vision of an India that only has room for certain kinds of Indians, and it's part of a belief that pluralism is something to be celebrated, something to be strived for," Mamdani said while addressing the Hindu American community.
However, this is not the first time that Mamdani had called out Modi. After Mamdani's victory in the Democratic mayoral primary earlier this year, an old video had resurfaced in which he attacked Modi over the 2002 Gujarat riots.
In the footage, Mamdani alleged that Muslims were eradicated from Gujarat, stating that "people don't even believe we exist anymore", referencing the scale of violence and its aftermath.
At a candidates' forum in the run-up to the mayoral election, Mamdani responded to a question about appearing alongside Modi during a New York visit by drawing a parallel between Modi and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, labelling both as "war criminal".