‘Become Capitalists, Raise Money’: Singer’s Sharp Advice to Mamdani Amid Bhagwat NYC Row

Washington: US singer and actress Mary Millben has strongly criticised New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and other opponents of an upcoming Manhattan event featuring Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat. She accused them of being driven by hostility toward Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Bhagwat is scheduled to speak on Saturday at the “Universal Oneness Celebration,” organised by the American Hindus for Engagement and Dialogue (AHEAD Forum). The gathering, timed around Raksha Bandhan, is being promoted as a Hindu American community event focused on the idea that “the world is one family,” civic participation and interfaith unity. Reports indicate it is planned at Madison Square Garden and expected to draw thousands from the Indian diaspora. The programme forms part of the RSS’s centenary-year global outreach tour covering the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

In a post on X, Millben, who performed India’s national anthem during Prime Minister Modi’s 2023 state visit to the United States, wrote: “Mamdani and all these socialist nuts are opposing the Madison Square Garden (MSG) event featuring Mohan Bhagwat because they oppose PM Narendra Modi and the BJP. That’s pretty clear.”

She continued: “Given these nuts subscribe to the ideology of socialism, they don’t understand capitalism. MSG doesn’t answer to socialist rants. They answer to capitalism. And thus this event will go on because of it.”

Her sharp advice to the mayor and his “choir of socialists” was blunt: “Become capitalists, raise money, rent MSG, and host your own rally for all your anti-Modi foolishness.”

Millben also expressed support for the event’s central theme. “Side note, I like the rally title. ‘Oneness’. We are ONE family. I hope this rally includes meaningful dialogue on religious freedom in India,” she added.

Mamdani, New York’s first Muslim and Indian-American mayor, said on Tuesday that he does not support the gathering. “I don’t support the rally, but I don’t know if the city has any jurisdiction on cancelling a private event,” he told reporters.

He contrasted the India he was taught about by his family — “a pluralistic society of a secular Republic that believed in the belonging of each and every person who was from India” — with what he described as “the rise of a movement that is predicated on an exclusionary vision.” Mamdani said he opposed that vision both as an Indian-American and as mayor of a city that values belonging regardless of colour, creed or faith.

Several civil rights, interfaith and some Hindu organisations have also criticised Bhagwat’s appearance, citing the RSS’s history and alleging an exclusionary ideology. Organisers and supporters, however, present the event as a cultural and community programme rather than a political rally, noting that a privately organised gathering at a commercial venue falls outside City Hall’s control.

The RSS has stated that its overseas visits are partly aimed at countering perceptions that it is a paramilitary outfit involved in attacks on minority communities.

Bhagwat arrived in New York on Tuesday and received a traditional welcome from members of the Indian community. The controversy has already drawn sharp reactions in both the United States and India, turning what organisers describe as a diaspora cultural programme into a proxy debate over Hindu nationalism, free speech, municipal authority and competing visions of India.

As of now, organisers have given no indication that the Saturday event will be cancelled or shifted.