Indu Viswanathan, an Indian-American Hindu lady who calls herself a liberal New Yorker, launched an assault in opposition to Socialist Zohran Ok Mamdani who’s inching towards turning into the primary Muslim mayor of New York after profitable the Democratic main. In an extended put up on X, Vishwanathan mentioned she lived in New York since 1997 — a 12 months earlier than Mamdani got here to the US. She mentioned it’s “irritating to see the gleeful, starry-eyed glorification of Zohran Mamdani, an individual who glibly distorts information, manipulates id politics, and imports battle like a commodity for political acquire”. Viswanathan mentioned it is not about his religion, birthplace, ethnicity — the problems individuals are attacking. “Let me be very clear. This is not about his religion, his ethnicity, his birthplace, the languages he speaks, or his code switching, all of which I’ve seen utilized in assaults in opposition to him. That is New York, a metropolis that really thrives on and embraces variety. These assaults aren’t even price addressing,” she mentioned.Calling Mamdani performative, opportunistic and deeply undemocratic, the Indian-origin scholar mentioned Mamdani will not be a truthful voice of the marginalized. “Mamdani is a projection of an intolerant, anti-intellectual left-wing authoritarianism that has sunk its enamel into progressive politics. The type of authoritarianism that makes me really feel deeply pessimistic about the way forward for my get together,” she wrote.
Viswanathan countered Mamdani’s declare that Muslims left Gujarat
Viswanathan mentioned one of many blatant lies that Mamdani not too long ago spouted is that Muslims left India’s Gujarat. “This is not simply inaccurate or a delicate exaggeration to land a bigger, extra necessary level. It IS the purpose, and it’s a deeply irresponsible falsehood. Gujarat is house to over 7 million Muslims at present, practically 10 % of the state’s inhabitants. To place that in perspective, there are extra Muslims in Gujarat than there are in your entire United States,” she mentioned including that Mamdani used this false declare to erase his personal folks — as his father was from Gujarat — for political expediency“With that charming twinkle in his eyes,” Viswanathan added. Vishwanathan defined that it’s simple to assault Mamdani on the idea of his faith, however she needs to query his integrity — as an alternative of elevating calls for for his deportation, as Republicans did.
