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Newly sworn-in New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani has written a personal note to student activist Umar Khalid, who has been incarcerated for nearly five years in connection with the February 2020 Delhi riots case, saying, “We are all thinking of you.”
The undated handwritten note was shared on social media platform X by Khalid’s partner, Banojyotsna Lahiri, on Thursday, January 1, shortly after Mamdani took oath as mayor in a historic midnight ceremony in New York. In the note, Mamdani wrote: “Dear Umar, I think of your words on bitterness often, and the importance of not letting it consume oneself. It was a pleasure to meet your parents. We are all thinking of you.”
Umar Khalid, a former Jawaharlal Nehru University student, was arrested in September 2020 and charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for allegedly conspiring to incite the Delhi riots, charges he has consistently denied. He was granted temporary bail in December last year to attend his sister’s wedding.
Khalid’s father, Syed Qasim Rasool Ilyas, told The Times of India that the family met Mamdani in December during a visit to the US to see Khalid’s sister. “He gave us time exclusively and we discussed many things, including Umar’s incarceration. Mamdani said he follows the case and has read Umar’s letters from jail,” Ilyas said, adding that the prolonged pre-trial detention had drawn international attention.
Ilyas also met US Congressman Jamie Raskin during the visit, who later, along with three other lawmakers, wrote to India’s ambassador to the US on December 30 expressing concern over Khalid’s continued detention, calling the pre-trial incarceration “punitive in and of itself”.
Mamdani’s note comes amid his assumption of office as New York City’s 112th mayor following a historic midnight swearing-in ceremony at a decommissioned City Hall subway station. Mamdani (34) took the oath on the Quran, becoming the city’s first Muslim mayor, the first of South Asian origin, the first African-born mayor, and the youngest in generations.
“This is truly the honour and the privilege of a lifetime,” Mamdani said moments after taking the oath, which was administered by New York Attorney General Letitia James. A larger public inauguration followed later on Thursday at City Hall, where US Senator Bernie Sanders administered the oath and praised Mamdani’s victory over political establishments.
Mamdani, a democratic socialist and former New York State Assembly member from Queens, has pledged to rule “expansively and audaciously,” promising policies centred on affordability, including free buses, free childcare, government-run shops and a freeze on rent increases in regulated housing.
After the ceremonies, Mamdani and his wife, Rama Duwaji, are set to move from their rent-stabilised apartment in Queens to the official mayoral residence at Gracie Mansion in Manhattan.
(With IANS inputs)