Human rights and social organization activists have called on New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to cancel an event set to take place this week featuring Mohan Bhagwat, chief of India’s Hindu nationalist organization Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
They are calling for the controversial event to be cancelled and urging the mayor to take a clear stand on the spread of hardline Hindu nationalist influence in the United States.
Middle East Eye reported Tuesday, August 25, that protests are being prepared outside City Hall against the visit by the century-old organization’s top leader, who is widely known as a catalyst for India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Shrabya Tadepalli, deputy executive director of human rights organization Hindus for Human Rights, said in a statement that Mohan Bhagwat does not represent ordinary Hindus. She said he leads a hardline Hindu nationalist group that has fueled attacks, discrimination and fear targeting minority communities in India. Such extremist religious nationalism, she said, should not be given the opportunity to present itself as unity in a pluralistic city like New York.
According to sources familiar with the matter, dozens of human rights and civic organizations, along with influential local political figures including Brad Lander and Shahana Hanif, have already written to the mayor urging action against the event.
According to historian and researcher Edward Anderson, the RSS has been expanding its influence among the Indian diaspora since India’s independence. He said the organization’s choice of New York’s iconic Madison Square Garden as the venue reflects an intent to project its visible influence and use that image within India’s domestic politics.
Attacks and hate crimes against minority Muslims and Christians in India have risen sharply since Narendra Modi became prime minister in 2014. Current Mayor Zohran Mamdani has previously been a sharp critic of this rising hardline Hindutva movement in India. Before becoming mayor, he had even taken a stand in favor of excluding a controversial exhibit related to the Ayodhya issue from an Indian parade. Recently, however, questions have been raised in various quarters over whether his positions on sensitive international issues reflect genuine conviction or merely an effort to protect his political identity.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report