Mamdani Says NYC May Not Have Power To Stop Mohan Bhagwat Event At Madison Square Garden

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has indicated that his administration is unlikely to intervene to stop RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s scheduled event at Madison Square Garden, saying the city may not have jurisdiction to cancel a private gathering.

Mamdani said he did not support the rally but was uncertain whether the city had the legal authority to cancel a private event. His remarks came as a coalition of 61 civil rights, faith, community and advocacy organisations urged Madison Square Garden to cancel the August 29 event.

Mamdani said he opposed movements based on an exclusionary vision and referred to the idea of India that his family introduced him to.

As the first Indian American mayor in New York City’s history, Mamdani said his mother’s family remains in India. He further described the India he grew up with as a pluralistic society and a secular republic that embraced everyone who belonged to the country.

Mamdani said the emergence of a movement based on an exclusionary vision of any country was deeply troubling to him. He added that, both as an Indian American and as mayor of a diverse city, he stood in strong opposition to such a movement.

Opposition to Event

Brad Lander, the Democratic nominee for New York’s 10th Congressional District, City Council Member Shahana Hanif and representatives from Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Dalit and Christian communities joined the campaign against the event at a news conference outside New York City Hall.

Lander referred to Madison Square Garden’s hosting of a German American Bund rally in 1939 and argued that the venue should not host the upcoming event.

Hanif said New York’s diverse South Asian communities had experienced the effects of what she described as hateful ideology and violence associated with the RSS.

Amin Zama of the Indian American Muslim Council said the campaign was directed at an ideology rather than the Hindu community, arguing that the concern was with defining citizenship and national belonging through religious identity.

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