By Kanishka Singh<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON, Aug 25 (Reuters) – New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said on Tuesday he did not support an upcoming event in his city featuring the leader \u200cof the Hindu nationalist group that is the ideological parent of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata \u200cParty (BJP).<\/p>\n
Mohan Bhagwat, chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), is scheduled to speak at a Manhattan event on Saturday, according to \u200bthe event’s website.<\/p>\n
“I don’t support the rally, but I don’t know if the city has any jurisdiction on cancelling a private event,” Mamdani, who is the first Muslim and Indian American mayor of New York City, said when asked if the event should be cancelled.<\/p>\n
“The vision of India that I was taught \u200cby my family and one that \u2060I grew up being very familiar with was of a pluralistic society of a secular Republic that believed in the belonging of each and every person \u2060who was from India. And it has been incredibly troubling to see the rise of a movement that is predicated on an exclusionary vision.”<\/p>\n
The event’s website casts the August 29 gathering as the “Universal Oneness Celebration” bringing \u200btogether the \u200bHindu American community.<\/p>\n
The organizers, American Hindus for Engagement and \u200bDialogue, say the event is backed \u200cby several Hindu American groups and promotes shared heritage and interfaith unity. Many local organizations have criticized it over Bhagwat’s attendance and the RSS’ history.<\/p>\n
The RSS, a powerful Hindu group from which Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP emerged, said in May it had organised foreign visits, including to the U.S., to counter perceptions it is a paramilitary outfit involved in attacks on minority communities.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Commission \u200con International Religious Freedom says the RSS “has been involved in \u200bacts of extreme violence and intolerance against members of minority \u200bgroups for decades.”<\/p>\n
The RSS disputes intolerance accusations \u200band says it is a “Hindu centric civilisational, cultural movement” whose goal is \u200cto “carry the nation to the pinnacle of glory,” \u200bincluding by uniting Hindus.<\/p>\n
United \u200bNations and human rights groups say abuse of Indian minorities has risen in recent years, pointing to rising hate speeches, a religion-based citizenship law, the demolition of Muslim-owned properties, the removal \u200bof Muslim-majority Kashmir’s autonomy and \u200can anti-conversion legislation that challenges freedom of belief.<\/p>\n
The BJP-led Indian government denies being discriminatory and \u200bsays its policies, including food subsidy programs and electrification drives, benefit all communities.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by \u200bKanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Sonali Paul)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Kanishka Singh WASHINGTON, Aug 25 (Reuters) – New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said on Tuesday he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[97465,124046,124045,124044,2101,124043,9,24,11,10,124047,110639,82],"class_list":["post-329890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-bharatiya-janata-party","tag-hindu-american","tag-hindu-group","tag-hindu-nationalist","tag-india","tag-mohan-bhagwat","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-rashtriya-swayamsevak-sangh","tag-upcoming-event","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}