Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), along with a coalition of interfaith and civil rights groups including Hindus for Human Rights, held a press conference on Tuesday, August 25, demanding Madison Square Garden (MSG) cancel the ‘Universal Oneness Celebration’ on 29 August. Its headline speaker is Mohan Bhagwat, leader of India’s Hindu supremacist paramilitary organisation, the RSS leader of India’s Hindu supremacist paramilitary group, RSS.
At the conference, on the steps of New York City Hall, speakers spoke next to a big banner that read:
RSS KILLED GANDHI
MSG SAYS WELCOME
#RSSOUTOFNYC
IAMC also posted a picture of a van outside MSG on Tuesday that read:
MSG OWNER JIM DOLAN SELLS HIS STAGE TO RSS PARAMILITARY THAT KILLED GANDHI
The RSS was banned by India’s own government, after one of its members assassinated Mahatma Gandhi. On August 29, Jim Dolan is renting them Madison Square Garden. MSG must cancel. #NoHateAtMSG #RSSOutOfNYC pic.twitter.com/VFfkzk5Oxj
— Indian American Muslim Council (@IAMCouncil) August 25, 2026
Safa Ahmed of the IAMC said at the press conference:
The RSS is a Nazi-inspired paramilitary group aimed at turning India from a secular democracy into a Hindu ethnostate. We call on New York City to make it known that Mohan Bhagwat is not welcome here.
Bhagwat has been a full-time RSS functionary since 1975 and its supreme leader since 2009. The RSS is central to Indian politics, through its ideology and its control of the BJP, Modi’s party.
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Mamdani condemns the event
Zohran Mamdani, the mayor of NYC, later that day was asked about cancelling the event, to which he said:
I don’t support the rally, but I don’t know if the city has any jurisdiction on cancelling a private event.
He said his mother’s family still lives in India, and he grew up with the vision of India as a “pluralistic society of a secular republic” and was in “deep opposition” to an “exclusionary movement.”
BREAKING: @NYCMayor Zohran Mamdani condemns event featuring RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and denounces the organization’s exclusionary ideology, which has contributed to India’s continued democratic decline and growing authoritarianism.#NoHateAtMSG #RSSOutOfNYC pic.twitter.com/EXMMgmej90
— Indian American Muslim Council (@IAMCouncil) August 25, 2026
RSS — Banned three times
The RSS has been banned three times in India due to its extremist actions and policies.
According to Outlook India:
In 1948, following Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination by Nathuram Godse, an ex-member, the government banned the RSS, citing links to violence. During the 1975 Emergency under Indira Gandhi, the RSS was banned again due to fears of political mobilisation; thousands were jailed until the ban was lifted in 1977. The organisation’s third ban came in 1992 after the Babri Masjid demolition.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has faced bans three times in independent India. In 1948, following Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination by Nathuram Godse, an ex-member, the government banned the RSS, citing links to violence. During the 1975 Emergency under Indira Gandhi, the… pic.twitter.com/T5ycXdzujr
— Outlook India (@Outlookindia) October 15, 2025
Bhagwat does not represent Hindus, according to Sravya Tadepalli of Hindus for Human Rights. He represents a:
fringe, extremist Hindu nationalist movement, which has engaged in hate and violence against religious minority communities for a century.
Charm offensive
Earlier in August,Telegraph India reported that Bhagwat was leading an outreach to ‘Gen Z and Gen Alpha’ at “a time when the youth-led Cockroach Janta Party has mauled the aura of invincibility around the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.”
RSS is desperate to reach out to Gen Z, according to the left-wing party Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation (CPIML).
The Gen Z protests in India this summer, led by the ‘Cockroach Janta Party,’ have captured the media limelight and scared the ruling Hindu nationalist government.
The participation of the “urban aspirational classes” in these protests has been “striking,” given their unfamiliarity with engaging with public causes and the fact that they have been the BJP’s voter base.
But it reflects that the Indian post-1990s liberalisation-led growth is failing even those who benefited the most from it.
Modi had a big audience at MSG in 2014, when the BJP started ruling India on its own; at this time, the RSS’s voter base was happy. Bhagwat is trying, no doubt, to revive that “hero’s welcome.”
Featured image via WikimediaCommons
By The Canary
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