INDIA NEEDS A MAMDANI

Mamdani’s ideas - plural, liberal and invaluable - resonate with the core of a new India and make him stand out as a leader worth cherishing

- Malay Mishra

Zohran Mamdani took the oath of office as the mayor of New York, the largest and most important city of USA, at a decommissioned subway of Manhattan to symbolise his affinity with the city’s workers and marginalised people whose cause he said he would serve, thus wearing the badge of a democratic socialist on his sleeve.

He was administered the oath by the Democratic senator Bernie Sanders, a monumental figure in American politics and a torchbearer of democratic socialism, with Congress woman Alezandria Cortez by his side.

There was hardly any coverage in the Indian media of his historic oath-taking, and the seminal impact Mamdani’s election would have on American politics. The 34-year-old politician broke several taboos in taking charge of the Big Apple, right in the heart of the elite, fat-cats and billionaires, the bastion of American Jewry.

Mamdani, however, remains a taboo in India. The government through its media handlers had made it a point to invisibilise Mamdani despite his stupendous victory by ousting the two-time Democrat governor Andrew Cuomo, his nearest rival, by polling more than 50% of the vote. Over one million New Yorkers, cutting across race, religion, ethnicity and economic background and largely carrying the immigrant tag, had voted for him in a groundbreaking election creating waves across the world. It is only his home country India that did not salute its 34-year-old son on his unprecedented victory.