'This isn't about his faith': Indian-American woman slams Zohran Mamdani, says his glorification is frustrating to see

Indu Viswanathan, an Indian-American Hindu woman who calls herself a liberal New Yorker, launched an attack against Socialist Zohran K Mamdani who is inching toward becoming the first Muslim mayor of New York after winning the Democratic primary. In a long post on X, Vishwanathan said she lived in New York since 1997 -- a year before Mamdani came to the US. She said it is "frustrating to see the gleeful, starry-eyed glorification of Zohran Mamdani, a person who glibly distorts facts, manipulates identity politics, and imports conflict like a commodity for political gain".

Viswanathan said it's not about his faith, birthplace, ethnicity -- the issues people are attacking. "Let me be very clear. This isn't about his faith, his ethnicity, his birthplace, the languages he speaks, or his code switching, all of which I have seen used in attacks against him. This is New York, a city that actually thrives on and embraces diversity. Those attacks are not even worth addressing," she said.



Calling Mamdani performative, opportunistic and deeply undemocratic, the Indian-origin scholar said Mamdani is not a truthful voice of the marginalized.


"Mamdani is a projection of an illiberal, anti-intellectual left-wing authoritarianism that has sunk its teeth into progressive politics. The kind of authoritarianism that makes me feel deeply pessimistic about the future of my party," she wrote.

Viswanathan countered Mamdani's claim that Muslims left Gujarat

Viswanathan said one of the blatant lies that Mamdani recently spouted is that Muslims left India's Gujarat. "This isn't just inaccurate or a gentle exaggeration to land a larger, more important point. It IS the point, and it is a deeply irresponsible falsehood. Gujarat is home to over 7 million Muslims today, nearly 10 percent of the state’s population. To put that in perspective, there are more Muslims in Gujarat than there are in the entire United States," she said adding that Mamdani used this false claim to erase his own people -- as his father was from Gujarat -- for political expediency

"With that charming twinkle in his eyes," Viswanathan added.

Vishwanathan explained that it is easy to attack Mamdani on the basis of his religion, but she wants to question his integrity --- instead of raising demands for his deportation, as Republicans did.