Thousands of miles away, an American of Indian heritage has shaken up US politics in a way that has drawn the attention not just in India but across the world.
Zohran Mamdani is young, left-wing, Muslim, pro-Palestinian and a total outsider. On any other day, any one of these attributes could have cost him an election in America but, in a surprising turn of events, he went from polling 1 percent when he launched his campaign for New York City mayor to more than 44 percent in the Democratic Party primaries.
The primary was for who will represent the Democrats at the mayoral election in November. As the city is staunchly Democratic, Mamdani should be a shoe-in to win.
However, Democrats of the established order are worried. As a self-described Democratic Socialist, Mamdani is further on the left than many Americans are comfortable with – this is, after all, a country where Socialist or even (whisper it) Communist are dirty words.
Born in Uganda, Mamdani moved to New York with his family aged 7. He later earned a degree in Africana Studies from Bowdoin College, where he co-founded the campus chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine.
The millennial progressive, who would be the city’s first Muslim and South Asian mayor, has not hidden his roots in what is a diverse city. One of his campaign videos has been entirely in Urdu and included Bollywood film clips. In another, he speaks Spanish.
His pitch to voters, though, is one of money. New York is expensive, not just for visitors but for the people who live there too. Mamdani has proposed several radical (at least for the USA) measures, including free buses, a rent freeze, city-owned grocery stores to keep prices of everyday goods down, universal childcare for children up to 5 years and a massive increase in rent-stabilised, union-built housing.
Although critics have described his plans as unaffordable for the city’s budget, they should resonate with a lot of New Yorkers who are struggling against the cost of living crisis.
However, it’s his stance on Palestine that has received some of the largest levels of coverage. This could be especially important given that New York has the largest population of Jews anywhere outside of Israel. Jewish voters in America tend to vote Democrat and those of NYC are no different. But the Democratic Party is becoming less and less supportive of Israel given the genocide being carried out against Palestinians.
Mamdani has been endorsed by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders (himself a person of Jewish heritage who is also strongly critical of the current Israeli regime) and other Jewish political figures but his stand on Palestine could cost him votes. Expect his enemies to use this as a whip to beat him during campaigning. Already Donald Trump has labeled Mamdani a “Communist lunatic”. The charismatic young politician will have to face a lot worse in the days to come.
