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The mother of New York City's socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani revealed in a newly unearthed interview that her son 'is not an American at all.' Mira Nair, an internationally acclaimed filmmaker and mother of the 34-year-old mayoral hopeful, spoke about her then-college-aged son in a now-archived interview with The Hindustan Times back in 2013. She shared how she and her husband, Mahmood Mamdani, kept their son tied to his Indian heritage after leaving the country at 19. Then, she claimed that Mamdani doesn't see himself as a true American. 'He is a total desi. Completely. We are not firangs at all,' Nair told the outlet. The word 'desi' refers to a person of South Asian descent, typically from India, Pakistan, or Bangladesh. 'Firang' is more commonly used in India as a derogatory term for foreigners, particularly white or Western people. 'He is very much us. He is not an American at all,' she added. 'He was born in Uganda, raised between India and America. He is at home in many places. He thinks of himself as a Ugandan and as an Indian.' Attorney Mehek Cooke, an Indian-born GOP consultant and commentator, called Nair's use of the word 'firangs' nothing short of a 'slur,' according to Fox News Digital. 'It's the word used back in India to mock outsiders, to say you don't belong. Using it here about your own child raised in the United States carries the same tone as calling someone a derogatory word - or worse,' Cooke told the outlet. 'It's flippant, divisive and dripping with contempt for the very country that gave your family a better life,' he added. 'When Mamdani's mother says her son was 'never a firang and only desi,' it's a rejection of America.' On Monday Mamdani was forced to clarify his widely-publicized story about a Muslim 'aunt' who, he claimed, stopped riding the subway after the September 11 terror attacks in 2001 because she feared harassment. 'It's ungrateful, disrespectful, and frankly repulsive to live in this country since age seven, receive every freedom, education, and opportunity America offers, and still deny being American.' In the decade-old interview, Nair said the family 'speaks only Hindustani at home' and that Mamdani 'often' traveled to India throughout his academic years. Mamdani was a 21-year-old American student at Bowdoin College at the time, studying Arabic and Politics. He also co-founded the school's Students for Justice in Palestine chapter and pushed for academic sanctions against Israel. When questioned about whether she tried to keep her son out of the spotlight as a celebrated filmmaker, Nair said he had entirely different interests and that she wouldn't want him following in her footsteps. 'He should do whatever he wants to do. I don't see it in him to make movies,' she told The Hindustan Times. 'He is very involved with current affairs, politics and political issues,' she added. 'I think he can be engaged in the world in someway to make a difference. He is very very interested in that.' Mamdani, who came to the US at seven, holds dual US-Uganda citizenship and became a naturalized American in 2018. But since entering the political spotlight, the Mamdani family has drawn criticism and backlash on social media over their stances on current issues. Mamdani has accused Israel of genocide, promised to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu in New York and declared he cannot support a country that is officially Jewish and grants Palestinians fewer rights, according to The New York Times. On the second anniversary of Hamas's October 7 massacre, the Israeli Foreign Ministry slammed Mamdani as 'a mouthpiece for Hamas propaganda,' even though he had condemned the group's attack. Earlier this year, Mamdani's 2009 Columbia University application was leaked, showing he identified as both 'Asian' and 'Black or African American' on the Ivy League application - a school he was ultimately rejected from. Critics, including New York Mayor Eric Adams, slammed the move as 'an insult to every student who got into college the right way.' Mamdani defended himself and stated that he checked multiple boxes to reflect his true heritage. 'Most college applications don't have a box for Indian-Ugandans, so I checked multiple boxes trying to capture the fullness of my background,' he explained. In July, Mamdani's father, 79-year-old Columbia University professor Mahmood Mamdani, stirred controversy after an excerpt from his 2004 book, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror, was shared on X. In the resurfaced novel, his father referred to suicide bombers as a type of 'soldier.' 'We need to recognize the suicide bomber, first and foremost, as a category of soldier,' the younger Mahmood wrote. 'Suicide bombing needs to be understood as a feature of modern political violence rather than stigmatized as a mark of barbarism,' he added. Mamdani's parents also told the NYT earlier this year about how their son was raised and how his politics developed throughout his life. 'He's his own person,' Mamdani's father told the outlet. 'Now, of course, what we do as his parents is part of the environment in which he grew up, and he couldn't help but engage with it. That doesn't mean anything is reflected back on us.' His mother immediately interjected. 'I don't agree!' she said. 'Of course the world we live in, and what we write and film and think about, is the world that Zohran has very much absorbed.' But attorney Mehek Cooke said Nair's 2013 interview is yet more 'proof' that Mamdani is unfit to lead America's most famous city. 'This isn't just about identity, it's about values. Rejecting the label of 'American' while living under the flag, enjoying the freedoms, and cashing in on the opportunities is a rejection of American values themselves,' Cooke told Fox News Digital. 'And if you raise your child to believe he was 'never a firang,' never an American, what message are you sending?' he added. 'That he owes nothing to this nation? That he can take the benefits without any sense of belonging or loyalty?' 'That mindset breeds resentment. And that's exactly what we're seeing play out in politics today.
