New York Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani has again criticised Narendra Modi. He criticised the Indian Prime Minister during a Diwali event. Zohran Mamdani said that the BJP’s vision for India includes only certain kind of Indians.
“I have been critical of Modi because I grew up with a vision of an India where everyone belonged. Modi and the BJP have room only for certain kinds of Indians,” says Zohran Mamdani, who earlier compared Modi to a war criminal pic.twitter.com/sKljEyK2oj
— Shashank Mattoo (@MattooShashank) October 22, 2025
He said, “I have been critical of Modi because I grew up with a vision of an India where everyone belonged. Modi and the BJP have room only for certain kinds of Indians.” Mamdani said that he knows many New Yorkers from the Indian diaspora feel differently about the Indian Prime Minister. He said it’s their right and he will represent them all the same.
Zohran Mamdani faces backlash from Indians
Indians on social media were not happy with Mamdani’s comments. Supreme Court advocate Mahesh Jethmalani called him a hypocrite.
This hypocrite @ZohranKMamdani has audacious gall. He is photographed with jihadi terrorists, enthusiastic about the Muslim Brotherhood (the epitome of intolerance & exclusivism), propagates the globalisation of intifada, and is mealy mouthed about the imposition of Sharia law.… https://t.co/gYiSFKg7hu
— Mahesh Jethmalani (@JethmalaniM) October 22, 2025
Another user pointed out that the New York Mayoral Candidate never goes to community events of Pakistanis or Arabs and criticises their leaders.
Show us a video where he went to the Pakistani diaspora and criticised Shebhaz Sharif and Asim Munir for perpetrating violence against its own people? Show us a video where he went to an Arab diaspora and criticised the authoritarian rules in Saudi Arabia and Qatar?
— prasanna (@pjtrundles) October 22, 2025
Former Indian Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal highlighted the fact that India has multiple state governments where the BJP is not in power. India has a huge population that does not vote the for the BJP.

Furthermore, Kanwal Sibal said that Hindus do not need lectures on pluralism. He described Mamdani’s rhetoric as communal propaganda.
Usual superficial nonsense by anti- Hindus like this person.
— Kanwal Sibal (@KanwalSibal) October 22, 2025
Hinduism is intrinsically pluralist in nature with its multiplicity of divinities, philosophies and ways of practising the faith.
Hindus do not need to be lectured on pluralism. It is people like Mamdani who need… https://t.co/WWwl8APwiP
Mamdani earlier called Narendra Modi a ‘War Criminal’
Significantly, however, Zohran Mamdani has notably dialled down his anti-Modi rhetoric. Until very recently, he was describing the Indian Prime Minister as a ‘War Criminal’. He made the comparison during a campaign event in May and said that Narendra Modi is someone “who we should view in the same manner as we do Benjamin Netanyahu.”
ALSO READ: New York Mayor Candidate calls Modi ‘war criminal’, had participated in anti-Hindu Hate rally
While Mamdani has notably dialled down the rhetoric against Narendra Modi, he is yet to formally apologise for attending an anti-Hindu hate rally in 2020. During a rally he participated in, a mob chanted, “Who are the Hindus? Harami (Bastards).”
Before dropping out of the race, incumbent New York Mayor Eric Adams had called out Mamdani’s Hinduphobia as well. Apart from condemning Mamdani for attending anti-Hindu hate rally, Eric Adams had also slammed the frontrunner in the New York Mayoral elections for remaining silent when micreants defaced a Gandhi statue.