Zohran Mamdani under fire for lavish Uganda wedding: 'Socialism for thee, not for me'
Although Mamdani, 33, tied the knot last year, the Uganda event appeared to be extravagant. It reportedly featured armed guards, a cellphone jamming system to prevent photo leaks, and tight security around the estate. A source quoted in the Post claimed that masked special forces were stationed outside the compound to guard the invitation-only event.
The revelations quickly drew criticism online, particularly from those questioning Mamdani's political positions on public safety. "NYC Mayor candidate Zohran Mamdani has run on the platform of defunding the police and abolishing prisons but this is his private security outside his family compound in Uganda. Don't those that can't afford private security, also deserve to feel safe and protected?" said one X user.
Another added, "Zohran Mamdani wants to ban all guns and defund the police, then flies to Uganda for his wedding, guarded by masked special forces at his family's multimillion-dollar compound. Socialism for thee, not for me."
A third user taunted Mamdani's lavish celebration, mocking him as a "man of the people". "Zohran Mamdani: Nothing says American like getting married on your family's luxury Uganda compound. A man of the people," they added.
"So it's ok to have masked military for his wedding but ICE isn't supposed to wear masks?" quipped a fourth user.
Others criticised Mamdani's privilege in the East African country. "He is privileged. He offers freebies because he's incapable of taking any real steps to improve the economy, as that requires effort."
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The Print
11 minutes ago
- The Print
Bihar voter list revision is not anti-democratic—India can't let illegals influence polls
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Some NDA allies, including the Telugu Desam Party, without opposing the SIR exercise outright, have also expressed concerns about its goals. The Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar—due for assembly elections in a few months—has raised hackles mostly among Opposition politicians. They believe that it is a covert exercise to remove minority voters from the voters' list in order to benefit the BJP and the NDA. So, when the Telugu Desam Party says that the SIR exercise should not be a way to determine citizenship, it is right in a technical sense, but not quite. The EC cannot determine citizenship, but it has the right to know whether someone on the voters' list is a citizen or not. Opposition's mala fide intention The EC says that 99.8 per cent of electors have already been covered in the SIR (till 25 July), and just 1.2 lakh voters have not submitted their forms/documents. That's a very small percentage of missing forms. What may be of concern is the likely exclusion of nearly 64-65 lakh voters currently on the list, which is just under nine per cent of the total. But the EC's numbers do indicate why so many may be excluded unless they prove otherwise. Of the proposed deletions from the draft electoral roll, 22 lakh are deceased, 35 lakh are out-migrants who may have shifted permanently out of Bihar, and another 7 lakh had their names in multiple state voter lists. All the parties likely to contest in the state have been given the list of likely exclusions, and they have till 1 August to raise objections. Nothing sounds unfair, except for the tight deadlines. If the Opposition boycotts the polls over the SIR issue, it will be acting with mala fide intention. It cannot be anyone's case that people who live elsewhere must be on Bihar's voter list, or that the dead should be represented by fraudulent impostors voting in their names, or that people registered in multiple states should be allowed to vote in Bihar, too, unless those other states first delete their names. No political party will admit to it, but each one wants to see that its potential voters are not excluded. They may have no problems with the other exclusions and deletions. The Opposition parties, which rely heavily on the Muslim vote in Bihar and West Bengal, are not keen to see Bangladeshi citizens who may have gotten into our voters' lists excluded. The BJP in West Bengal, on the other hand, would not like to see the same citizenship scrutiny being imposed on Hindu Bangladeshis, though many of them may be living in West Bengal due to persecution in Bangladesh. Since all non-NDA Opposition parties seem united in demanding a cancellation of Bihar's SIR, it's safe to assume they fear their own vote bank stands to lose the most. Two arguments are being made against SIR: The exercise has given voters too little time, and it does not accept widely available documents like Aadhaar. Second, it is undemocratic to exclude so many voters on the suspicion that they may not be Indian citizens. The rushed deadline is a valid complaint, but when Mamata Banerjee—who will contest in the Bengal assembly polls next year—also raises the same issue, the argument loses much of its force. As for non-use of Aadhaar, it was never intended to be proof of citizenship. The EC seems to have done most of the job already, and, if needed, can give political parties an additional week or two to raise objections to the exclusions. The second argument is patently wrong, for it is the EC's job to see that non-citizens are not allowed to vote in India. As long as no eligible voter is excluded, it cannot be blamed. To ensure the latter, all political parties have been given the opportunity to re-insert names they think have been unfairly removed from the draft list. Even after the draft is published on 1 August, voters have time till the end of the month to make corrections. That said, one must point out that voters' lists are not foolproof because the EC does not have enough full-time staff to keep lists updated year-round in all states. Its work begins more or less a few months ahead of a general or state election, and most of the work is done by state officials under the EC's overall direction. Most states will not spare staff a year ahead of elections to do this job of filtering out ineligible voters and adding new ones. Also read: A year after Bangladesh's Monsoon Revolution, a parched summer looms ahead Case of Bangladeshi, Pakistani citizens The truth is not just SIR, but the compilation of a regularly-updated National Register of Citizens (NRC) would be an equally legitimate exercise. But as the Assam NRC showed, such an exercise would force Hindus who may have fled persecution in Bangladesh or Pakistan to be struck off the rolls and denied citizenship rights, too. The Assam NRC used not just documents, but family trees to determine citizenship. The politics of SIR or NRC involves two separate questions: one is about citizenship and the eligibility to vote. The other—unstated—issue is the demographic challenge in eastern border states of West Bengal, Assam, Jharkhand, and Bihar, which have been quietly settled by Muslims as well as Hindus from Bangladesh. The BJP view—which I agree with—is that we cannot treat illegals who may be persecuted in Bangladesh in the same way as those who are merely coming here for livelihoods. The Modi government tried to partially signal this differentiation through the Citizenship Amendment Act of 2019, but the cutoff date for fast-tracking citizenship for eligible minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan was 31 December 2014, which made the exercise minimalist. Useful for political signalling, but of no real help to the lakhs of Bangladeshi minorities seeking to flee persecution even today. The only logical way out for the BJP is to enact a 'right to return' law for Hindus and minorities from Pakistan and Bangladesh—much like the one Israel has for Jews living outside Israel. In India's case, it would mean offering minorities in our neighbouring countries the right to enter India and seek fast-track citizenship. Both Pakistan and Bangladesh continue to persecute their minorities, and do not want to give Hindus equal rights on a par with Muslims. By no stretch of imagination can the reduction in Bangladesh's Hindu population from 22 per cent in 1951 to less than eight per cent in the last census be called anything other than steady ethnic cleansing through coercion and intimidation. The demographic challenge is particularly acute in India's east and north-east, where several districts are now Muslim majority, and others are showing a steadily rising share of Muslims. This is what drove Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to clearly state what the real issue is. In posts made over the last few days on X (formerly Twitter), Sarma made statements that no politician has previously dared to make. Sanjay Hegde, a lawyer, noted that it was not right to equate all Bengali Muslims with Bangladeshi Muslims. He wrote: 'Not every Bengali-speaking Muslim in Assam is a Bangladeshi. The history and geography of Assam and undivided Bengal are far too complex for such lazy thinking.' To which Sarma replied boldly, avoiding political correctness. While agreeing with Hegde that the issue was complex, Samra was crystal clear in identifying the problem for what it was: the steady change in religious demography. 'Legally, all of them may not be foreigners. But we, the people of Assam—especially Hindus—are becoming a hopeless minority in our own land. All this has happened over a span of just 60 years. We have lost our culture, our land, our temples. The law gives us no remedy. That's why we are desperate—not for revenge, but for survival. Yes, we may be fighting a losing battle. But we will go down fighting—with dignity, within the law, and for the soul of our Assam. Do not stop us. Just do not stop us from fighting for what is ours. For us, this is our last battle of survival,' he wrote on X. Thus far, no Opposition politician has given Sarma any kind of evidence-based rebuttal. In response to Mamata Banerjee's attempt to convert the issue into a Bengali-non-Bengali one, Sarma was even bolder in his assertions. 'Didi, let me remind you. In Assam, we are not fighting our own people. We are fearlessly resisting the ongoing, unchecked Muslim infiltration from across the border, which has already caused an alarming demographic shift. In several districts, Hindus are now on the verge of becoming a minority in their own land. This is not a political narrative – it's a reality. Even the Supreme Court of India has termed such infiltration as external aggression. And yet, when we rise to defend our land, culture, and identity, you choose to politicise it.' Courage, maybe. But constitutional clarity is needed, and this can only come if persecuted minorities in our neighbourhood have the right to come to India and settle legally. 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Mint
11 minutes ago
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US, China eye tariff détente in Stockholm meeting today as August deadline looms. What to expect?
Top US and Chinese officials are meeting Monday in Stockholm to try to extend their fragile tariff detente beyond a mid-August deadline and explore broader steps to ease trade tensions. The Stockholm negotiations come just days after Trump secured his largest trade deal to date with the European Union. Under that agreement, most EU goods exports to the U.S., including automobiles, will face a 15% tariff. In return, the EU has committed to purchasing $750 billion in American energy and making $600 billion in U.S. investments over the coming years. Meanwhile, Washington and Beijing are expected to extend their current tariff truce by another three months, according to a report by the South China Morning Post, citing unnamed sources familiar with the talks. One source told the newspaper that neither side will impose new tariffs during the extension period. 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Still, Bessent said in recent days that the US would use this week's huddle to work out what's 'likely an extension' to the current tariff pause, adding: 'I think trade is in a very good place with China.' Any progress in this week's US-China negotiations could lay the groundwork for a potential meeting between Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, possibly timed with a major summit in South Korea later this year. Xi extended an invitation for Trump and First Lady Melania Trump to visit China during a phone call last month, though no date has been confirmed. Sweden's role as host for the talks became clearer after Swedish Finance Minister Elisabeth Svantesson revealed that both U.S. and Chinese officials approached her during the recent G20 gathering in South Africa to propose Sweden as a neutral ground for the negotiations. The meetings in Stockholm mark a quiet but significant moment in the ongoing efforts to manage trade tensions and avoid a renewed tariff escalation. US Ambassador David Perdue, who arrived in Beijing in May, presented his credentials to Xi on Friday, China's envoy to the US posted on X. At the core of the ongoing negotiations between the world's two largest economies lies a high-stakes standoff over critical technologies. Beijing's tight control over rare-earth magnets vital for electric vehicles, wind turbines, and advanced military systems clashes with Washington's sweeping export restrictions on cutting-edge semiconductors crucial to artificial intelligence development. Reducing the 20% fentanyl tariffs Trump imposed over US claims Chinese companies supply chemicals used to make the illegal drug is also a high priority for Beijing, Eurasia Group analysts wrote in a note last week, citing recent meetings with Ministry of Public Security officials. Ministry officials travelled to the Geneva talks in May and will likely go to Stockholm, the analysts wrote, as reported by Bloomberg. While China has denied it is responsible for the flow of the deadly drug, last month it tightened controls over two chemicals that can be used to make the opioid. Earlier this month, Trump praised those moves. 'China has been helping out,' he told reporters. 'We're talking to them and they're making big steps.' For the US, the recent Chinese actions aren't enough, as such moves were required to comply with United Nations measures, according to a person familiar with the trade talks. Chances of reducing the 20% tariff in this round of talks are very slim, added the person who asked not to be identified, discussing sensitive matters, while noting everything could change on Trump's whim, Bloomberg reported. China would be willing to cooperate more on fentanyl, said Sun Chenghao, a professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing, but the US would have to remove the related tariffs, stop blaming Beijing for what it sees as a US domestic problem and provide concrete evidence of crimes. The US business community remains hopeful for progress, with Sean Stein, president of the US-China Business Council, telling Bloomberg TV that movement on fentanyl presents the 'biggest opportunity' in talks. 'That then lowers tariffs on the US side, which then opens the door for China to lower tariffs that lets us sell agriculture, lets us sell airplanes, lets us sell automobiles, that let's us sell energy,' he said. As US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent opened the latest round of trade talks, he signalled a broader negotiating agenda including Beijing's ongoing purchases of sanctioned Russian and Iranian oil. But China has made clear it won't entertain US pressure on that front. 'China won't play along,' warned Lv Xiang, a US affairs expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, speaking to state-run Global Times, firmly rejecting any effort to use China as leverage against Russia's economy. At the same time, energy trade between the U.S. and China has sharply declined. In June, Chinese imports of American crude oil, LNG, and coal dropped to nearly zero, the first time in nearly three years, with tariffs of 10–15% imposed by Beijing in February dampening purchases. The energy gap highlights how geopolitical friction is deepening the divide, even as negotiators seek to keep broader trade tensions from reigniting. Xi's government has begun rolling back some of its other retaliatory measures since the two sides met last month in London. Crucially, Beijing has boosted shipments of rare earth magnets, while the US relaxed restrictions on sales of less-advanced semiconductors to China. In another potential goodwill gesture, as the Sweden talks were announced this month, China revealed it had suspended an antitrust investigation into the local unit of US chemical manufacturer DuPont de Nemours Inc. China's colossal manufacturing output will also be a talking point for Trump's team. I think trade is in a very good place with China. Bessent said the US hopes to see China 'pull back on some of this glut of manufacturing that they're doing and concentrate on building a consumer economy.' (With inputs from Bloomberg)
