New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has said he does not support a planned Madison Square Garden event featuring Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat, while acknowledging that the city may not have the authority to cancel the private gathering.
Bhagwat is scheduled to address around 5,000 members of the Indian diaspora at Madison Square Garden on August 29 as part of the Universal Oneness Celebration, organised by the AHEAD Forum. His visit to the US is part of the RSS’s centenary-year global outreach programme, which also includes stops in Canada and the UK.
Asked whether the event should be cancelled, Mamdani said he did not support the rally but was unsure whether the city had jurisdiction to stop a private event.
Mamdani, New York’s first Indian-American mayor, also explained his opposition to the gathering. He said the India he grew up familiar with through his family was a pluralistic society and secular republic in which everyone could belong.
He described it as troubling to see what he called the rise of a movement based on an “exclusionary vision”, saying he opposed that vision both as an Indian-American and as mayor of a city that believes in belonging regardless of colour, creed, religion or faith.
The planned appearance has also drawn opposition from several interfaith and civil rights organisations. Groups including Hindus for Human Rights, the Indian American Muslim Council and the Interfaith Centre of New York held a press conference outside New York City Hall and called for the event to be cancelled.
The AHEAD Forum, which is organising the gathering, has described the Universal Oneness Celebration as an event centred on the idea that “the world is one family”, with a message of mutual respect, harmony and unity.
The controversy puts Bhagwat’s US visit at the intersection of Indian diaspora politics, New York’s political leadership and the RSS’s global outreach. Mamdani has made clear that he opposes the event, but has also acknowledged the limits of what the city government can do about a privately organised gathering.
