BJP Strongly Reacts to US Lawmakers, Mamdani Requesting Bail, Fair Trial to Khalid, Calls Rahul Gandhi “Anti-India”

Rohit Kumar

NEW DELHI, Jan 2: The BJP has strongly reacted to the newly sworn-in New York city mayor Zohran Mamdani and eight other United States lawmakers for writing a note to the Indian authorities requesting for release on bail and ensuring fair trial of the 2020 Delhi riot accused Umar Khalid being held for five years without a trial and lambasted the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for “anti-India” stance for his meeting in 2024 one of the eight. signatures to the letter.

The BJP pointed frantically at a photograph of Rahul Gandhi with the US lawmaker Janice Schakowsky an Ilhan Omar, another US lawmaker whom the ruling party routinely claims is “anti-India”, and declared, “Every time an anti-India narrative is peddled abroad one name recurs in the background… those who want to weaken India, defame its elected government, and dilute its anti-terror laws converge around him.”

To Mr Mamdani, who was sworn-in the New York City mayor on Thursday, the BJP said India would not tolerate his “interfering” in India’s internal matter. Questioning Mr 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.

In his post Bhandari claimed a link between Gandhi’s 2024 trip to the US, and meeting with Schakowsky and Omar, and a bill sponsored by the latter that was tabled in January 2025. The bill was the Combating International Islamophobia Act. The bill proposed the creation of an Office to Monitor and Combat Islamophobia and address related issues. The bill also required certain existing annual reports submitted to the US Congress – reports on human rights and religious freedom in foreign countries – to include information about Islamophobia and anti-Muslim propaganda in government-controlled media.

This came after Mr Mamdani wrote a note for Mr Khalid, recalling his words on “bitterness” and the importance of not letting it consume one’s self and remembering his meeting with Khalid’s parents. The note followed the open letter signed by eight US lawmakers. The letter was penned to Indian Ambassador Vinay Mohan Kwatra, urging India to grant bail and a free trial “in accordance to international law” to Umar Khalid, an accused in a larger conspiracy case related to the 2020 North East Delhi riots.

Mr Mamdani’s note was posted on “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 Mr Mamdani said.

Reacting sharply, Mr 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.

In the letter dated December 30, 2025, the US lawmakers pledged support to the jailed student activist and sought the government to “share the steps being taken to ensure that the judicial proceedings against Umar Khalid and those of his co-accused who remain in detention comport with international standards.’

Tracing history of Mr Gandhi’s meeting with Schakowsky and Omar, Mr Bhandari wrote, “How the Rahul Gandhi-anti-India lobby works… 2024: Jan Schakowsky meets Rahul Gandhi in the United States – with anti-India Ilhan Omar. January 2025: She reintroduces 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 UAPA in serious cases linked to riots and violence.”

The letter Schakowsky wrote December 30 urged the Indian government to grant Khalid bail and ensure a trial ‘in accordance with international law’. The eight US lawmakers also urged the government to ensure similarly fair treatment to Khalid’s co-accused, who too remain in jail. Democrat Jim McGovern, one of the signatories of the letter, posted a copy of it on

In the letter McGovern and the others said the “strength of the evidence used to charge Mr Khalid with terrorism… is dubious” and that independent investigations by human rights groups “did not find evidence linking Mr Khalid to terrorist activity.” The letter called on 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 letter by the US lawmakers was shared by Democrat Jim McGovern, who is also the Co-chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission. The others who had signed on it include Democrat Jamie Raskin, Indian-origin Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, US Representatives Jan Schakowsky, Lloyd Dogget, Rashid Tlaib, and US Senators Chris Van Hollen, and Peter Welch.

As per the letter, Mr McGovern and others had met Umar Khalid’s parents earlier in December. “Representative Raskin and I are leading our colleagues to urge that he be granted bail and a fair, timely trial in accordance with international law,” he said, sharing the signed letter in a post on X.

“Umar Khalid has been detained without bail for 5 years under UAPA, which independent human rights experts have warned may contravene international standards of equality before the law, due process and proportionality…India must uphold the rights of individuals to receive a trial with reasonable time or to be released and be presumed innocent until proven guilty…,” the letter read.

“The US and India share a long standing strategic partnership that has historically been rooted in democratic values, constitutional governance and strong people-to-people ties,” the letter said, adding that as the world’s largest democracies, both nations have an interest in protecting and upholding freedom, the rule of law, human rights and pluralism. “It is in this spirit” that the lawmakers said they are raising their concerns regarding Mr Khalid’s detention.

The lawmakers claimed that human rights organizations, legal experts and global media have raised questions about the fairness of the investigation and legal process related to Mr Khalid’s detention. He “has been detained without bail for five years for charges levied under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, which independent human rights experts have warned may contravene international standards of equality before the law, due process and proportionality.”

The US Representatives further added that they understand that these matters are currently under consideration before the Supreme Court of India and welcomed the news that Khalid received temporary bail to attend his sister’s wedding.

Mr 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.

Mr Khalid was recently out on interim bail to attend his sister’s wedding. Delhi’s Karkardooma court granted him bail from December 16 to December 29. The conditional bail included a clause that he will not use social media and will meet only his family members, relatives and friends. He has been ordered to remain at home or the venue of the wedding and other ceremonies.

Mr Khalid was arrested in September 2020 under charges like criminal conspiracy, rioting, unlawful assembly and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). Getting bail under the UAPA is difficult for those booked under this law as the onus to show that the case is false lies on the accused.

His bail plea is pending before the Supreme Court where last month a bench of Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice NV Anjaria concluded arguments and reserved judgment.