'Focus On Your Responsibilities': India Slams Mamdani's Note For Umar Khalid

India on Friday criticised New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and disapproved of the note he sent to jailed activist Umar Khalid. External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, in his weekly media briefing, said that Mamdani should be respectful of judiciaries in other democracies and should focus on responsibilities given to him.

Mamdani handed over a handwritten letter to Umar Khalid's parents when he met them last month. In the note, Mamdani conveyed his solidarity with Khalid. 

"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," Mamdani wrote.

Zohran Mamdani writes to Umar Khalid.
December 2025. #FreeUmarKhalid#FreeAllPoliticalPrisoners pic.twitter.com/QTYe06cRp5

— banojyotsna ... (@banojyotsna) January 1, 2026

Responding to a question on Mamdani's communication to Khalid, Jaiswal said, "We expect public representatives to be respectful of the independence of the judiciary in other democracies. Expressing personal prejudices does not behove those in office. Instead of such comments, it would be better to focus on the responsibilities entrusted to them."

Mamdani's support for Khalid originated during his early tenure as a member of the New York State Assembly. In June 2023, at a protest against PM Modi's visit to the United States, Mamdani read passages from Khalid's prison diary and presented him as a scholar and former student activist who had been unjustly persecuted.

Syed Qasim Rasool Ilyas, Umar Khalid's father, told NDTV that he met Mamdani on December 9 for around 25 minutes, a meeting he had sought to thank the Democrat for reading Khalid's jail diary in 2023. "He said he always thinks about Umar's incarceration and that he must get bail now," the activist's father recounted.

When Mamdani asked what he could do in this matter, Khalid's father replied, "Just pray."

Khalid has been lodged in jail for nearly five years in connection with the February 2020 Delhi riots, in which 53 people were killed. He was granted bail from December 16 till 29 to attend his sister's wedding.