BJP objects to Mamdani note on Khalid, sees Rahul hand

A political storm erupted with the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday accusing New York’s newly sworn-in Mayor Zohran Mamdani of interfering in India’s internal matters by writing a note on jailed activist Umar Khalid and asserted that the country will not tolerate any such effort.

Eight US lawmakers also wrote to Indian ambassador to Washington Vinay Kwatra seeking fair and timely trial for the jailed activist.

Alleging a sinister anti-India plot, the BJP also claimed the alleged plot, hatched from US soil, involved Rahul Gandhi. The party cited a 2024 meeting between Rahul Gandhi and US lawmaker Janice Schakowsky as further evidence of what it called the Congress leader’s “anti-India” connections.

Schakowsky was among seven others who urged the Indian Government to grant bail to Umar Khalid, who was arrested in connection to the 2020 Delhi riots.

 Posting a photograph of Rahul Gandhi along with Schakowsky and Ilhan Omar, BJP spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari in a social media post alleged that these international associations damage India’s image.

Questioning Mamdani’s locus standi of commenting on India’s internal matters, BJP national spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia also cautioned the New York City Mayor against such efforts, asserting, “If India’s sovereignty is challenged, 140-crore Indians will stand united under the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership.” People of India have “complete faith” in the country’s judiciary, he added.

This came after Mamdani wrote a note for Khalid, recalling his words on “bitterness” and the importance of not letting it consume one’s self.

The note was posted on social media by Khalid’s partner Banojyotsna Lahiri. “When prisons try to isolate, words travel. Zohran Mamdani writes to Umar Khalid,” the caption accompanying the note said. “Dear Umar, I think of your words on bitterness often, and the importance of not letting it consume one’s self. It was a pleasure to meet your parents. We are all thinking of you,” the handwritten note signed by Mamdani said. Reacting sharply, Bhatia charged, “If anybody comes out in support of any accused and interferes in India’s internal matters, the country will not tolerate it.”

“Who is this outsider to raise questions on our democracy and judiciary, and that too coming in support of a person who wants to break India? This is not fair,” the BJP spokesperson said at a press conference at the party headquarters here, when asked about Mamdani’s note.

 Khalid and a few others have been booked under the stringent anti-terror law, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, (UAPA) 1967, and provisions of the IPC for allegedly being the “masterminds” of the February 2020 Delhi riots, which left 53 people dead and more than 700 injured.

 Criticising the Congress leader, the BJP said “Every time an anti-India narrative is peddled abroad, one name recurs in the background: Rahul Gandhi. Those who want to weaken India, defame its elected Government, and dilute its anti-terror laws seem to inevitably converge around him,” Bhandari said.

He went on to claim that Rahul Gandhi’s 2024 meeting in the US with Schakowsky and Omar was linked to legislative moves abroad. He cited the January 2025 introduction of the ‘Combating International Islamophobia Act’ by Schakowsky, which he said “explicitly” named India and referred to alleged “crackdowns on Muslim communities.”

 The BJP spokesperson presented a sequence of events involving Rahul Gandhi’s US outreach and tried to link it with subsequent steps by lawmakers.

 “How does the Rahul Gandhi-anti-India lobby work?” Bhandari asked, laying out a timeline: “In 2024, Jan Schakowsky met Rahul Gandhi in the United States, along with anti-India lawmaker Ilhan Omar. In January 2025, she reintroduced the ‘Combating International Islamophobia Act’, explicitly naming India and alleging ‘crackdowns on Muslim communities’.” “Cut to 2026: the same Jan Schakowsky writes to the Government of India, raising ‘concerns’ over Umar Khalid-an accused under the UAPA in serious cases linked to riots and violence,” he added.

The BJP maintains that these interventions by foreign lawmakers are part of an “anti-India” campaign, drawing direct lines between such actions abroad and the Congress leader’s meetings.Schakowsky’s letter to the Indian Government, dated December 30, sought bail for Khalid and a trial “in accordance with international law”. It also called for fair treatment of Khalid’s co-accused, who remain incarcerated.Democrat Jim McGovern, one of the letter’s signatories, shared on social media “Earlier this month I met with the parents of Umar Khalid, who has been jailed in India for over five years without trial.”

McGovern and others wrote that the “strength of the evidence used to charge Mr Khalid with terrorism is dubious” and cited independent human rights group investigations that “did not find evidence linking Mr Khalid to terrorist activity.”The lawmakers’ letter urged India, as a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to “uphold the rights of individuals to receive a trial within a reasonable time or be released.”The Vishwa Hindu Parishad(VHP)also slammed Mamdani alleging that he insulted the Quran by coming out in defence of “criminals who talk about dividing India.”

The VHP national spokesperson, Vinod Bansal also flayed the US lawmakers who have written to Vinay Kwatra, the Indian Ambassador to the US, urging that Khalid be granted bail.He claimed that they come out in support of the “criminals” in India but “keep mum” when Hindus and their temples are attacked in the US. The lawmakers have also maintained silence over atrocities against Hindus in Bangladesh, he charged.

Reacting sharply, Bansal said, “The so-called US lawmakers and the New York City Mayor are standing by criminals in India but keep mum on what’s happening in Bangladesh. They also keep mum when Hindus and their temples are attacked in the US.”Criticising Mamdani for writing a note to Khalid, the VHP spokesperson said the New York City mayor should have ascertained the “truth” about him before doing so.“What kind of mindset is this? Standing by killers… The newly elected mayor, who took an oath on Quran, is insulting it. This is not right,” Bansal said and asked Mamdani to “introspect”.