DC Edit | Real Challenge Begins For Mamdani
A social media campaign full of empathy caught the attention of people across the spectrum as Mr Mamdani spoke words like “affordability”, made promises that were sweet to the ear of lesser earners like lower rents in the Big Apple, making free creche care available and cheaper connectivity to all the people
It felt like a seminal moment when Zohran Mamdani took oath in a decommissioned subway station in America’s biggest city, New York. In these jumbled times when winners in politics wish only to take away while justifying everything as winner takes the spoils, here is a winning candidate who vowed to give something to the underserved and underprivileged people.
A social media campaign full of empathy caught the attention of people across the spectrum as Mr Mamdani spoke words like “affordability”, made promises that were sweet to the ear of lesser earners like lower rents in the Big Apple, making free creche care available and cheaper connectivity to all the people.
As a left-wing politician, the Social Democrat may have his work cut out in a nation that has swung to the polar opposite with Donald Trump as President, the one with the winner-take-all attitude who has thrown away the rulebook because he does not believe there is a need to rewrite it either.
As in reality show episodes, Mr Mamdani must now learn how to work with the White House if he is to deliver big projects besides day-to-day governance to all, including the mostly under-30s generation who made him a spectacular winner. To deliver on promises to 8.5 million people of New York City, it would cost about $7 billion more a year while coping with the cuts to federal funding that may rise if Mr Trump’s mood were to change from the expansive, as it proved surprisingly at their first meeting after the mayoral election.
As an American Democrat with an irresistible inclination to call out human rights violations around the world, Mr Mamdani threw hints to India by expressing solidarity with Umar Khalid, the student activist who is finding real bail more elusive than the supermoon after being jailed for the 2020 New Delhi riots.
Such situations should not exist in an ideal world and right-thinking people would not support methods that make the process of jailing itself the punishment. However, there may be battles closer home for Mr Mamdani to fight, as in the case of several officials whose right to their jobs has been taken away summarily by the Trump administration while many with a validated right to stay and work in the United States have been deported or kept out of the country. There is much to do on the human rights front in the US as well.
