One of the most remarkable democratic developments of recent times came from New York City this month. A 33-year-old man of Indian origin won the Democratic Party nomination to run for mayor of the city. The nomination is a sort of semi-final match, but because New York is a very Democratic Party-leaning city, he is the frontrunner and the likely winner of the election, which is later this year.
Zohran Mamdani is from a Gujarati Muslim family, and his father is a university academic who wrote a famous text after 11 September, 2001, titled ‘Good Muslim Bad Muslim’. Zohran’s mother is Mira Nair, the director of such movies as ‘Monsoon Wedding’ and ‘Salaam Bombay’. But his background is not the important part of Zohran’s story: it is the way in which he competed against and defeated a stalwart of his party, Andrew Cuomo, who was governor of New York state.
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The development is important because New York’s mayor has serious powers. He oversees a budget of over $100 billion which is more than that of most countries. He appoints judges, the police commissioner, and heads of more than 40 city agencies and members of boards and commissions. The reason figures like Rudy Giuliani are famous is that they were in this position.
Zohran’s platform was socialism and he refers to himself as a democratic socialist. This, as many readers will know, is a term that is almost derogatory in the United States because of its history against communism. But Zohran owns the term socialist proudly and says he is there to represent the working class, blue collar and immigrant New Yorkers and not the wealthy. He said he would as mayor freeze rent on 20 lakh homes; he would make city buses free; he would make child care free (a sort of anganwadi programme); and he would experiment with state-run grocery shops, starting with one in each of New York’s five boroughs. This would be like our ration shops, aimed at subsidising food. He says he will pay for this by marginally raising income taxes, but only on those New Yorkers who have an income of more than $1 million (over Rs 8 crore) per year.
The second important thing was the quality of Zohran’s campaign, which was conducted mostly on social media outlets TikTok and Instagram. Short videos of Zohran, who is a most attractive individual, himself going around the city and talking to New Yorkers about their concerns. These videos are also available on YouTube and they are worth watching for what a low-cost, effective and fresh campaign looks like.
Zohran speaks excellent Hindi, Spanish and Bengali in some of these videos to directly address those from South Asian and Latino backgrounds. He has no problem being comfortable with his identity as a South Asian, compared to other political figures in the US who are of Indian origin. The campaign has a very Bollywood touch to it, including the typefaces used and the editing of the videos.
The third striking thing about Zohran is that he speaks out for the rights of Palestinians and criticises the actions of the Israeli state. This is a most unusual position, because it opens him up to attack from what scholars like John Mearsheimer have called the Israel Lobby. Zohran’s courage shows from his refusal to back down or soften his stand even when running for an election with such high stakes. This is not how politicians behave. The US is the only nation whose democratic candidates are expected to show enthusiastic loyalty to another country.
The fact that he achieved a thumping victory despite having the media including the New York Times attack him viciously and unfairly shows that this courage was respected and admired and rewarded by New York’s residents. His own Democratic Party offered him little support and few endorsements even after he won the nomination. There is no Clinton, Biden or Obama today by his side, because of their fear of association with Zohran and what he says and does. In the past, Democrats who have promoted socialist policies, such as Bernie Sanders, have been seen as likeable but marginal figures. Zohran is different.
His victory means that his party will have to learn from him, because after the rise of Donald Trump, the Democrats have been in disarray. Currently, the Republicans control all three branches of government, the White House, the House of Representatives and the Senate. Democrats have had no real answer to the Trump phenomenon and Zohran, with his emphatic and clear policies aimed at working-class Americans, offers them a national path for a return. It is a fact, among other things, that the position of most Americans on the issue of Palestine has shifted because of the ongoing genocide in Gaza. It is Zohran who represents this majority which is voiceless in his party.
If he is able to win the general election later this year and is then able to deliver on the substance of his policies over the short term, his party will come to him. The US goes into its crucial mid-term elections late next year and the Democrats now have a desi hero to teach them how to contest and on which issues.
By Aakar Patel
