Mamdani says he opposes RSS event at Madison Square Garden but can’t cancel it, sparking backlash from BJP leaders and debate among NRIs
American Hindus for Engagement and Dialogue said more than 200 Hindu-American organisations are supporting the ‘Universal Oneness Celebration’. A coalition of 61 civil rights, religious and community groups has, however, asked Madison Square Garden to cancel it.
However, TMC MP Saugata Roy said RSS ideology would not work in multi-religious New York. The Sangh said the visit to the US, Canada and UK is intended to present what it called a factual view of India, Hindu society and RSS, counter “misinformation”, carry the message of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” (the world as one family), and deepen engagement with the diaspora. Congress MP Imran Masood questioned the purpose and global message of the event, while senior Congress politician from Maharashtra Nana Patole sought answers about the RSS’s structure, funding and Bhagwat’s visit. Bhagwat’s scheduled address is the centrepiece of the US leg of a three-country tour marking RSS’s centenary. Community leadership programmes are planned in Toronto and London.
Indeed, the Obama administration opposed a 2015 court effort to compel the State Department to designate it a foreign terrorist organisation.
In India, BJP MP Bhola Singh called Mamdani’s characterisation “incorrect and baseless”. “RSS has been continuously engaged in social service and nation-building for a very long time,” he said. BJP spokesperson Syed Zafar Islam termed the mayor’s statement “divisive”, while MP Yogender Chandolia said Bhagwat led a social organisation. Shiv Sena (UBT) spokesperson Anand Dubey said opposition to an Indian leader abroad was “unwarranted”. Shiv Sena’s Shaina NC accused Mamdani of “appeasement politics” and cited work by RSS-linked service bodies in the US. Party leader Sanjay Nirupam went further, using the term “jihadi” for the mayor.
Support crossed Maharashtra’s political divide. The sparring reflects a long-running American divide over the RSS. Critics in the US accuse it of fostering an atmosphere hostile to minorities. The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), an independent bipartisan federal commission recently recommended that the US govt impose targeted sanctions on RSS. However, American diplomats and political figures have periodically engaged with RSS functionaries in India and during their visits to the US. Most recently, senior RSS functionary Ram Madhav and general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale made US visits in April, meeting with think tanks, academics, and policy experts.
“The vision of India that I was taught by my family” was of “a pluralistic society, of a secular republic” in which everyone belonged, he said. The rise of a movement based on an “exclusionary vision,” he added, was “incredibly troubling. Mamdani, New York’s first Indian-American and Muslim mayor (and son of film-maker Mira Nair and Ugandan-Indian Mahmood Mamdani), framed his opposition as a clash of competing visions.