Zohran Mamdani thanks family from 'Kampala to Delhi', vows to govern 'audaciously'

New York: Indian-origin politician Zohran Mamdani vowed to govern “expansively and audaciously” and deliver an agenda of affordability for New Yorkers as he thanked his family from “Kampala to Dilli” after being sworn-in as the 112th Mayor of New York City.

Mamdani was administered the oath of office by Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont at a ceremonial inauguration outside City Hall on Thursday, the seat of New York City government, on New Year’s day.

He was formally sworn-in as New York City’s 112th Mayor by New York Attorney General Letitia James at a private ceremony held at the turn of the new year on December 31 in an old subway station here.

He became the first South Asian and Muslim elected to helm the largest city in the US.

In his nearly 25 minute speech to New Yorkers after taking the oath of office Thursday, Mamdani said that “beginning today, we will govern expansively and audaciously. We may not always succeed. But never will we be accused of lacking the courage to try.” He vowed that under his administration, City Hall will “deliver an agenda of safety, affordability, and abundance, where government looks and lives like the people it represents, never flinches in the fight against corporate greed, and refuses to cower before challenges that others have deemed too complicated.” Indian-descent Mamdani is the son of renowned filmmaker Mira Nair and Columbia University professor Mahmood Mamdani. He was born and raised in Kampala, Uganda and moved to New York City with his family when he was 7. Mamdani became a naturalized US citizen only recently in 2018.

Mamdani thanked his parents, who were present for the swearing-in ceremony, as well as his wife Rama Duwaji for their support. He also expressed gratitude to his family from Uganda to India.

"Thank you to my parents, Mama and Baba, for raising me, for teaching me how to be in this world, and for having brought me to this city. Thank you to my family, from Kampala to Dilli. And thank you to my wife, Rama, for being my best friend, and for always showing me the beauty in everyday things," he said.

Thousands of Mamdani’s supporters, from youth to the elderly, braved freezing temperatures on January 1 and stood for hours outside and near City Hall, cheering him and celebrating his victory and inauguration at a block party organized on the occasion. They said the New Year was ushering in an era of hope and promise as the new Mamdani administration begins its term in the city.

The supporters wore merchandise such as pins, hats and T-shirts emblazoned with Mamdani’s name and images.

Mamdani also sounded a note of unity as he addressed the eight and a half million New Yorkers, saying together, they will tell a new story of the city.

"This will not be a tale of one city, governed only by the one percent. Nor will it be a tale of two cities, the rich versus the poor. It will be a tale of eight and a half million cities, each of them a New Yorker with hopes and fears, each a universe, each of them woven together." "The authors of this story will speak Pashto and Mandarin, Yiddish and Creole. They will pray in mosques, at shul, at church, at Gurdwaras and Mandirs and temples. And many will not pray at all.” "Few of these eight and a half million will fit into neat and easy boxes. Some will be voters from Hillside Avenue or Fordham Road who supported President Trump a year before they voted for me, tired of being failed by their party’s establishment," Mamdani said.

"The majority will not use the language that we often expect from those who wield influence. I welcome the change. For too long, those fluent in the good grammar of civility have deployed decorum to mask agendas of cruelty,” he said.

This was the only reference to Trump that he made in his entire speech.

Mamdani had registered a decisive and historic win at the polls in November as he defeated Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa and political heavyweight former New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an independent candidate and received US President Donald Trump’s endorsement only on the eve of the election.

In a fiery victory speech, Mamdani had challenged Trump on immigration, heralded the toppling of "political dynasty” and said his election symbolises “hope” over tyranny and "big money” as he cited former Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to assert that the city has stepped out from the “old into the new.” Mamdani had invoked Nehru as he spoke about ushering in a new era in New York City politics.

“Standing before you, I think of the words of Jawaharlal Nehru: “A moment comes, but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance”.” "Tonight we have stepped out from the old into the new. So let us speak now, with clarity and conviction that cannot be misunderstood, about what this new age will deliver, and for whom,” he had said.