![\"'I](\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-133526176,imgsize-107660,width-400,height-225,resizemode-4\/mamdani-bhagwat.jpg\" "\\"Mamdani")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nNEW DELHI: New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani has said he does not support a planned event featuring RSS<\/a> chief Mohan Bhagwat<\/a> at Madison Square Garden, while noting that the city may not have the legal authority to stop the private gathering.Bhagwat is scheduled to address around 5,000 members of the Indian diaspora at the iconic New York venue on August 29. His visit to the United States is part of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh<\/a>‘s centenary-year global outreach programme.“I don’t support the rally, but I don’t know if the city has any jurisdiction on cancelling a private event,\u201d Mamdani said at a news conference on Tuesday.Mamdani was responding to questions about the RSS, the proposed event and protests against Bhagwat’s appearance. He was also asked whether the gathering should be cancelled.The mayor, who is the first Indian-American to hold the post in New York City, said his views were influenced partly by his family background.\u201cI also stand here as the first Indian-American Mayor in our city’s history, and my mother’s family is all still in India,” Mamdani said.He said his understanding of India was based on the idea of a society where people of different backgrounds could belong equally.He said the vision of India that he was taught by his family and the one that he grew up being very familiar with was that of “a pluralistic society, of a secular republic that believed in the belonging of each and every person who was from India”.Mamdani said he was opposed to what he described as an increasingly exclusionary political movement.\u201cAnd it has been incredibly troubling to see the rise of a movement that is predicated on an exclusionary vision of any country, frankly, and so it is one that I find myself in deep opposition to, not only as an Indian-American but also as the Mayor of a city that believes deeply in the belonging of each and every person, no matter their colour, their creed, their religion, their faith, wherever they’re from,\u201d Mamdani said.<\/p>\n The planned appearance has faced 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.<\/p>\n Share your thoughts in the comments<\/p>\n<\/div>\nProtests planned over Bhagwat event<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n