First, the positives. Indian-origin, Muslim Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the NYC mayoral election is a massive two-finger salute to the rancid MAGA crowd that has been demonising immigrants in America.

Ever since the rise of Donald Trump, any immigrant of colour has had a cross painted on their back. Indian-origin immigrants have been singled out in particular. This highly successful “model minority" that made America its home has been subjected to dehumanising racist tropes – job-stealers, unassimilable, “smelly" and “unwashed heathens".

The repercussions have been visible: a spike in hate crimes, growing pressure on Indian Americans to constantly prove their “Americanness", and, under Trump-era policy, an aggressive push toward detention and deportation of non-citizen South Asians.

No surprise, then, that in his victory speech Mamdani taunted Trump by saying he is “a Muslim,........

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