The Economist

 

Zohran Mamdani – The New Wonder Boy of America

By Justice Markandey Katju
Former Judge of Indian Supreme Court
Delhi, India

Much of the world is celebrating, has become spellbound and mesmerized, and gone gaga, over the victory of Zohran Mamdani in the New York Mayor’s election, hailing him as the new wonder boy of America, who would be a game changer, bringing a much needed revolution in American politics.
He has rocketed from local political obscurity to national political celebrity in less than a year, making bumper-stickery campaign promises aimed at alleviating the city’s cost-of-living crisis. I, however, am deeply skeptical about Mamdani, as he sounds like a populist, whose electoral socio-economic promises seem like the Manifesto of the Mahagathbandhan in Bihar.
Zohran Mamdani (33) embraced his South Asian heritage and added a Hindi film flavor to his campaign. This appeal appealed to New York City’s youth, immigrants, and working class. Last week, Mamdani posted a campaign video on X that included scenes and songs from classic Bollywood films. In the video, Mamdani spoke in Hindi. In the video, he promised to make basic necessities affordable and took aim at his main rival, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who had the support of US President Donald Trump.
Many people think a new age of prosperity will arise in New York, and later in many parts of the USA, now that he has been elected as the new Mayor. I, however, have grave doubts about this, and regard him as just a demagogue and soapbox orator, who will sooner or later come a cropper.

Mamdani’s agenda includes support for free city buses and a rent freeze in rent-stabilized housing.
Mamdani also wants the city government to operate five grocery stores, one in each of New York’s five boroughs — to drive down grocery prices. Mamdani has advocated capping rent increases, strengthening tenant protections, and creating a Social Housing Development Agency that would build publicly owned affordable housing. He wants to build 200,000 new units of affordable, rent-stabilized homes over the next 10 years and double the amount of spending to rehabilitate homes for the city’s 400,000 public housing tenants.
Mamdani supports raising New York City’s minimum wage to $30 per hour by 2030.
He supports an increase in corporate taxes in New York State from 7.25% to 11.5%. He also supports a new 2% increase for income tax on city residents who earn more than $1 million a year, to raise $20 billion to fund tuition-free CUNY and SUNY schools, statewide universal childcare, a subway fare freeze, free MTA buses, and tenant protections.
Mamdani supports economic and housing reforms aimed at equity and affordability. He advocates debt relief for taxi medallion owners, and the creation of a Social Housing Development Agency to build 200,000 affordable units in 10 years. He also proposes increasing housing density near mass transit hubs and upzoning wealthy neighborhoods.
Mamdani calls for increasing corporate and high-income taxes to fund tuition-free CUNY and SUNY, universal childcare, and free public transit. He also backs a city-run grocery store pilot to lower food prices. On Meet The Press, Mamdani said, “I don’t think we should have billionaires.”
Mamdani pledges to cut taxes for overtaxed outer-borough homeowners while raising them on expensive homes in wealthier, whiter neighborhoods. His proposal targets a 1981 law that bases taxes on rental value rather than market value, allowing expensive properties to be under-taxed compared to cheaper homes.
Now what is one to make of all this ?
Many such slick and crafty demagogues in several counties have made similar pre-electoral promises in the past, e.g. former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who was swept to power on the slogan ‘gharibi hatao’ (abolish poverty), former British Prime Minister Tony Blair who promised a ‘New Labor’, populist Argentinian leader Juan Peron who proved to be a fraudster and con artist who took Argentina for a ride, the present corrupt Brazilian President Lula, former Pakistan Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who promised ‘roti, kapra aur makaan’ (bread, clothes and housing) to all Pakistanis (and was later hanged for his pains), or former Prime Minister Imran Khan who promised ‘Madine ki Riyasat’, and is currently in Adiala jail. Scores of other names of such Pied Pipers of Hamelin can be given whom the gullible people followed like children, but were led to disaster. Zohran Mamdani is thus following in the footsteps of his illustrious forebears. He is a suave, glib, ingratiating, silver tongued smooth talker, who, like Hitler, taking advantage of the people’s economic distress, has made a plethora and cornucopia of promises, most of which cannot possibly be kept. However, there will be enormous pressure on him from the people of New York to fulfil his promises once he becomes Mayor, and then we will see him running helter-skelter for cover, and with all kinds of excuses. He has suddenly been hurled into the limelight, but will one day surely be revealed for what he really is–a pretentious, fustian, empty headed, high sounding, windbag, and an orotund, hifalutin and hollow rhetorician.
It is true that election promises are only ‘jumlas’ (idiomatic expressions) and are only for winning the elections, but quickly forgotten once the elections are over. But the high expectations raised by Mamdani’s plethora of tall promises will not be forgotten by the millions of poor and middle-class New Yorkers who supported his campaign enthusiastically. They will soon put immense pressure on Mamdani to fulfil his promises.
But where will the huge amount of money for fulfilling them come from?
America is ruled by its big business class, and big business will certainly oppose tooth and nail increasing its taxes (which Mamdani has proposed). Then where will Mamdani get all the money he needs for his schemes? He surely cannot increase taxes on the middle and poor classes, whose plight he has promised to ameliorate Mamdani has therefore two choices on becoming the Mayor:
(1) Either he forgets his election promises, or makes some cosmetic, peripheral, trivial and superficial reforms. But New Yorkers will soon see through the latter, and demand real fulfilment of his promises. (2) He seriously tries to implement them, by increasing taxes on the rich.
If he pursues the second course, three things are likely to happen :
(a) The US Supreme Court, whose majority (many of them Trump-appointed Judges) will strike down these measures as unconstitutional.  (b) Huge demonstrations and protests, organized behind the scene by the big corporations, will create a situation in which Mamdani will be forced to resign, or (c) Mamdani will be physically eliminated, as happened to President Allende of Chile in 1973 when he tried to introduce sweeping economic reforms like nationalization of industries and land.

(Markandey Katju is an Indian jurist and former judge of the Supreme Court of India who served as chairman of the Press Council of India from 2011 to 2014)