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Indian Express
6 days ago
- Business
- Indian Express
Vivek Ramaswamy warns of ‘citywide identity crisis' if Zohran Mamdani becomes NYC Mayor
The former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) chief Vivek Ramaswamy is taking an aim at New York City's political future warning that the city's 'soul' is at risk if a Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani wins the mayor's office. Ramaswamy, now a 2026 gubernatorial candidate in Ohio, claimed in his X post that Mamdani's rise signals the death knell for the city that once stood as a symbol of ambition and success. 'If a guy like this becomes mayor… the identity of New York City as we know it will be erased,' Ramaswamy warned. He also added, 'the spirit is receding, and under someone like Mamdani, it could be gone entirely.' Ramaswamy, who made his fortune in biotech before entering politics, said he moved to New York after college in 2007 because it celebrated ambition. But today, he says, that spirit is vanishing under what he calls a 'radical left' agenda. I moved to NYC after I graduated college in 2007 because it was a place that still celebrated success, but that spirit receded in New York & soon could be gone altogether. We're reviving that American Dream in a new place: Ohio. The revival starts next November. — Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) July 16, 2025 'We're reviving that American Dream in a new place: Ohio,' he wrote. 'The revival starts next November.' That revival is already being advertised in Times Square. Earlier this week, a massive digital billboard lit up the Manhattan skyline urging residents to 'flee' Mamdani's 'radical socialist' politics and relocate to Ohio, the heart of Ramaswamy's campaign for 'Victors, not Victims.' The Republican has built his campaign on the ideological chasm between conservative red states and progressive blue cities. His latest comments accuse Mamdani of harbouring an anti-capitalist worldview that could 'destroy America's greatest city.' 'Instead of ending billionaires, we should be focused on giving every American what billionaires have: a world-class education and financial independence from government,' Ramaswamy said. Instead of 'ending billionaires,' we should focus on building a country where every American can enjoy the most important thing that billionaires do: a world-class education & financial independence from their government. — Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) July 16, 2025 Ramaswamy also addressed a sensitive suggestion in the political discourse: race and religion. Mamdani, a Ugandan-Indian Muslim and son of filmmaker Mira Nair, has been the subject of both admiration and attack. But Ramaswamy urged critics to stay focused on ideology, not identity. 'The real problem with Mamdani isn't his race or religion. It's his anti-capitalist worldview,' he wrote in an op-ed for The New York Post. Still, Ramaswamy admitted the racism he himself has faced. 'Every time I post a photo, I'm asked to 'Go home',' he noted, slamming what he calls the 'race-obsessed fringe of the right' for targeting figures like Mamdani and Usha Vance, wife of Vice President JD Vance. 'It's a shame to watch the race-obsessed fringe of the right try to outdo the race-obsessed woke left,' he posted earlier this month.
Time of India
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Columbia Calumny: Did Indian-origin Zohran Mamdani claim to be Black because of his poor SAT score? What we know...
While Zohran Mamdani has been grappling with revelations about his old tweets, his college application to Columbia continues to haunt him like an albatross around his neck. After the New York Times revelation that Zohran Mamdani marked both 'Asian' and 'Black', conservative journalist Christopher Rufo has obtained his full admission application to reveal he scored only 2140 out of 2400 on his SAT, which was below the median score of 2250–2300. THE IDENTITY BOX GAMBLE For most students, a 2140 SAT score – roughly in the 94th–96th percentile nationally – would be a ticket to top-tier universities. But for Columbia, it fell short. Mamdani's mother is Indian, and his father Ugandan-Indian, placing him in the highest-scoring demographic pool in admissions. According to Rufo, his score was below the Asian median but likely above the Black median, raising uncomfortable questions about why Mamdani marked 'Black' on his form. In the ruthless casino of Ivy League admissions, every identity box is a chip – and Mamdani seemed to know exactly where to place his bet. HIS FIRST SAT ATTEMPT AND HIP-HOP AMBITIONS What many don't know is that Mamdani's 2140 SAT score was not his first attempt. His initial score was 1650 out of 2400, a result that would have excluded him from most top-tier universities. But at that time, college was not his only focus. During his high school years, Mamdani was also pursuing a different dream – hip-hop. Performing under the stage name Mr. Cardamom, Zohran Mamdani's rap persona, released tracks that blended political consciousness with South Asian cultural references, rapping about gentrification, landlords, imperialism, and immigrant struggles in New York City. Friends remember him as the bespectacled economics student who would freestyle about identity and oppression at underground shows. While his music never reached mainstream recognition, it revealed a core pattern that defines his politics today: an instinct to merge personal identity with ideological messaging, and to turn every platform – be it an application form or a rap stage – into a statement. WHY COLUMBIA STILL REJECTED HIM Despite his strategic box-ticking and the advantage of having a father on Columbia's faculty, Mamdani was rejected. Rufo offers two theories: Columbia's brutal cut-off – With an acceptance rate under 10%, even near-median candidates are often rejected. Meritocracy with a machete. His gambit backfired – Mamdani's application listed his parents: Professor Mahmood Mamdani and acclaimed filmmaker Mira Nair , neither of whom is Black. Their address in an exclusive Manhattan neighbourhood undercut any underprivileged narrative. As Rufo notes, even cursory research by an admissions officer would have revealed that Mamdani was neither Black nor disadvantaged – just another elite kid trying to game the system. FROM BOWDOIN TO ASTORIA: THE MAKING OF A CANDIDATE Columbia's rejection did not derail Mamdani's academic journey. He went on to Bowdoin College in Maine, graduating in 2014 with degrees in Economics and Film Studies. His upbringing was a tapestry woven across continents: born in Kampala, raised partly in Uganda and India, then New York, straddling languages, religions, and elite academic circles. Today, Mamdani is a rising star in American progressive politics. Representing Astoria, Queens, in the New York State Assembly, he has campaigned for rent freezes, free public transit, universal childcare, and gender-affirming healthcare. His brand is unapologetically socialist and deeply rooted in class struggle. OBAMA DELULU: MYTH VS REALITY Among Indian-American liberals, Mamdani's rise has sparked a familiar delusion: that he is the next Obama. After all, here is a brown intellectual, Ivy-educated, articulate, and unafraid to invoke moral urgency. But the comparison is misleading. Obama was a cautious centrist who won by forging broad coalitions and reassuring the establishment. Mamdani is a confrontational socialist whose rhetoric indicts the same establishment. For his critics, this makes him unelectable in a city that requires pragmatic coalition-building. For his supporters, it proves his authenticity. Unlike Obama, Mamdani has no illusions about elite buy-in. His project is to replace, not reform, the status quo. TRUMP PLAYBOOK IN SOCIALIST HANDS In strategy, however, Mamdani resembles Trump more than Obama . Like Trump, he is an outsider leveraging voter anger at establishment failures. Like Trump, he bypasses institutional party structures, building power through direct grassroots mobilisation. And like Trump, his identity is a core political weapon – though where Trump deploys whiteness, Mamdani wields race and religion as symbols of historical marginalisation. Earlier this month, Trump called him a '100% Communist Lunatic' on Truth Social. For Mamdani, that was a gift. Nothing cements your credibility with the progressive base quite like a personalised insult from Donald Trump . THE RUFO FACTOR: EXPOSÉ OR/AND IDEOLOGICAL HIT JOB? Christopher Rufo's involvement is no accident. A former documentary filmmaker who shifted to conservative activism in the mid-2010s, Rufo has built his brand by targeting critical race theory, DEI programmes, and what he calls the corruption of elite liberal institutions. His work was instrumental in the plagiarism revelations that toppled Harvard President Claudine Gay. He has since targeted Vice President Kamala Harris for alleged citation lapses in Smart on Crime. Critics call Rufo an ideological assassin. His supporters hail him as a truth-teller unmasking progressive hypocrisy. In Mamdani's case, Rufo frames the application saga as proof of liberal deceit: a privileged Indian kid falsely claiming Black identity to vault over more qualified candidates, only to now build a political career preaching redistributive justice. BIAS AGAINST INDIAN-AMERICANS IN IVY LEAGUE ADMISSIONS If Mamdani's actions were cynical, they were also rational. Malcolm Gladwell's Revenge of the Tipping Point dissects how elite schools systematically disadvantage Asian applicants. At Caltech, which uses meritocratic admissions, Asian-American enrolment rose from 25% to 43% between 1992 and 2013. At Harvard, it remained frozen at 15–20% – an artificial cap designed to maintain demographic balance. Gladwell writes: 'There must be a point at which [Harvard admissions officers] are confronting the fact that they have gone to extraordinary lengths to ensure their campus hasn't become dominated by Asians and Indians.' Indian students, with their exceptional average test scores, face the steepest barriers. For Mamdani, marking 'Black' may have seemed like the only way to overcome an invisible racial quota that punished his heritage. STRATEGIC IDENTITY VS MORAL CLARITY Was Mamdani wrong to identify as Black? Legally, definitions of race in admissions are fluid, often based on self-identification rather than genealogical purity. Morally, the decision is murkier. His choice undermines the original purpose of affirmative action: to rectify historic and systemic disadvantage. But it also exposes how admissions systems force applicants into moral contortions, treating identity as both a badge of oppression and a ticket to privilege. In the end, Mamdani's application was neither an isolated moral failing nor a heroic act of anti-racist solidarity. It was a calculated gamble in a rigged game. MAYORAL AMBITIONS: WILL THIS MATTER? For New Yorkers voting in November, Mamdani's teenage SAT strategies may feel irrelevant against the realities of rent, crime, and cost of living. But the revelations dent his brand of moral clarity. His pitch has always been simple: I am the authentic truth-teller. The Columbia saga adds nuance. It suggests that Mamdani, like many ambitious youth, learned to game the very systems he now seeks to dismantle. How he frames this narrative will shape its impact. If he acknowledges it as evidence of systemic flaws, it strengthens his critique. If he dismisses it, it risks festering as proof that his socialism is built on personal opportunism. A MIRROR TO ELITE HYPOCRISY Ultimately, Mamdani's story is less about him than about America's broken meritocracy. It is a story of how Ivy League admissions incentivise identity manipulation while punishing academic excellence in certain racial groups. It is a story of an immigrant community forced to outperform simply to remain equal. It is a story of hypocrisy – both individual and institutional. And it is a reminder that in the elite gatekeeping of American life, there are no innocents, only survivors. THE ALBATROSS REMAINS The poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote of an albatross hung around a sailor's neck as punishment for killing the bird that once guided his ship. For Mamdani, Columbia is that albatross. It will not sink his campaign, but it will remain, flapping its wings in every debate about authenticity, privilege, and what it means to be brown, ambitious, and strategic in America's rigged moral economy. Because in the end, every box checked is a confession: of who you are, who you wish to become, and how far you are willing to bend the truth to get there.
India Today
02-07-2025
- Politics
- India Today
Will not accept this intimidation: Zohran Mamdani reacts to Trump's arrest threat
The Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani, is not backing down. In a statement on X (formerly Twitter), Mamdani blasted President Donald Trump for what he described as a direct threat to his rights and citizenship. The comments come amid Trump's escalating rhetoric on immigration enforcement and his vow to expand Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations if President of the United States just threatened to have me arrested, stripped of my citizenship, put in a detention camp, and deported,' Mamdani wrote in a statement posted online. 'Not because I have broken any law but because I will refuse to let ICE terrorize our city.''His statements don't just represent an attack on our democracy,' Mamdani added, 'but an attempt to send a message to every New Yorker who refuses to hide in the shadows: if you speak up, they will come for you.'My statement on Donald Trump's threat to deport me and his praise for Eric Adams, who the President "helped out" of legal accountability. Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@ZohranKMamdani) July 1, 2025 Mamdani, the son of Ugandan-Indian filmmaker Mira Nair and a vocal critic of US immigration policy, made it clear he is not going anywhere. 'We will not accept this intimidation,' he rose to prominence through his outspoken support for Palestinian rights. He officially secured victory in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary, with a final vote count on Tuesday confirming his upset win over former Governor Andrew Cuomo. He now advances to the general THREATENS TO ARREST MAMDANITrump has threatened to arrest Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, if he defies federal immigration to reporters, Trump said Mamdani's refusal to allow ICE to arrest undocumented immigrants in the city could lead to legal consequences. "Well, then we'll have to arrest him," Trump said when asked about Mamdani. "We don't need a Communist in this country, but if we have one, I'm going to be watching over him very carefully on behalf of the nation."Trump added, "We send him money. We send him all the things that he needs to run a government. And by the way, they get already, they get about three times what you get, Ron. If you look at the per capita, Florida gets one-third of what New York gets in terms of the numbers."The Trump administration has also signalled a potential investigation into Mamdani's citizenship. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt responded to Republican Congressman Andy Ogles, who suggested Mamdani's citizenship should be revoked, accusing him of hiding "terrorist" sympathies during his naturalisation process.- EndsMust Watch
Time of India
25-06-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Queens to Rourkela: The story of Zohran Mamdani's transcontinental roots
Zohran Mamdani Okay, so here's the low-down in a casual vibe: Zohran Mamdani—he's the guy you keep hearing about as the radical young candidate in New York's mayoral race. But what does he have to do with Odisha? Born in Kampala, Uganda in 1991, Zohran is the son of Mira Nair (the celebrated Indian-American filmmaker originally from Rourkela, Odisha) and Mahmood Mamdani, a Ugandan-Indian academic heavyweight based at Columbia University. So yes, Odisha is the starting point for this whole story: Mira grew up in Rourkela and Bhubaneswar—her father Amrit Lal Nair was a key figure in helping set up the Rourkela Steel Plant, and Odisha has landmarks like Nair Stadium and Nair Chowk named after her family. Life for young Zohran was pretty global—first Uganda, then Cape Town at age five, and moving to NYC at seven. His upbringing mixes East Africa, South Asia, and the west—he speaks Hindi, has Bollywood vibes, and is deeply into social justice. Zohran jumps into NYC's 2025 mayoral race with radical platforms—free bus rides, universal childcare, rent freeze, city-owned grocery stores, and tax hikes on the wealthy. His campaign is peppered with Bollywood references, Hindi lines and earthy charisma: 'Aaj uske paas building hai... aapke paas – aap ho' (You have yourself) Back in Odisha, people are geeking out. They're proud that Mira's son could become NYC's first Indian-American Muslim mayor. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like เทรดทองCFDsกับโบรกเกอร์ที่เชื่อถือได้| เปิดบัญชีวันนี้ IC Markets สมัคร Undo Rourkela nostalgia, pride in the diaspora—social media feeds are buzzing. Some fans in Bhubaneswar are even pitching cultural exchanges—imagine a Bali Jatra fest in Queens! . That's how strong the emotional link is. Why Odisha matters Roots, not just bloodlines: His mom, Mira, grew up in Odisha. That connection makes Zohran's candidacy feel personal to locals. Diaspora pride: Seeing someone with Odisha roots rise globally—especially in politics—is huge for state pride. Cultural bridge: He's turning that link into action—campaign videos in Hindi, cultural nods, and the imagination of Indo‑NYC cultural exchanges. Odisha people are hyped—not just because he's their girl's kid—but because his success feels like theirs, and he bridges worlds: Uganda, South Africa, NYC, and Odisha. He's using that hybrid energy in a campaign that's loud, edgy, and full of heart—calling himself a socialist underdog with Bollywood flair, cooking skills, and a global justice mission.
