Who's afraid of NYC's new 'Gabbar Singh'?

It would be a tad premature to consider that what New York City thought yesterday, the United States will think tomorrow. It would also be unreasonable. But the Republic of NYC choosing Zohran Mamdani as its new mayor does point to one significant fact: there are effective alternatives to the Donald Trump Vision of the Universe. More than the win itself, how the self-described Democratic socialist performs down the line will be watched carefully by the currently moribund national Democratic Party.

Without Trump, there would have been no Mamdani - much like without Obama, there would have been no Trump. The new NYC mayor's radical chic may not get everyone's tick. But with the highest turnout for the Big Apple's mayoral elections since the Swinging Sixties, a majority did choose a bulwark against whom California governor Gavin Newsom called the 'leading nationalist and socialist of our time'. The very name 'Mamdani' conjures up a wrecking ball in the minds of those worried about the destruction of the US' financial capital. He has promised free bus rides, higher taxes for NYC's wealthiest, freezing the rent for 'affordable housing' - all popular among most voters, the gentrified included, but fiscally fragile for a jurisdiction with a $5.5 bn shortfall and a $110 bn budget. So, worries that NYC could turn into a bankrupt European-style welfare city-state while grinding down its wealth-creation gene is more legit than fears of it becoming an American outpost of Cuba.

But with US midterm elections next year, the NYC verdict provides one way to rebuff runaway Trumpism among possible others. And POTUS' threat to cut NYC federal funds - 'Beta, so ja, nahin to Gabbar Mamdani Singh aa jayega' - only confirms the efficacy of Wednesday's result.