NEW YORK CITY MAYOR Eric Adams was slated to attend an event in Queens next week featuring a prominent far-right Hindu activist, according to the event’s organizers, before withdrawing yesterday, a day after New York Focus sent inquiries about his attendance.
The event, a dinner at an Indian cultural center in Fresh Meadows, Queens, will feature Indian Hindu nationalist activist Kajal Shingala, whose speeches frequently feature calls for violence against Muslims in India and boycotts of non-Hindu businesses.
“She is one of the most prolific Hindu far-right orators,” said Raqib Hameed Naik, who runs an organization tracking hate speech in India that has catalogued dozens of Shingala’s speeches. “She has been at the forefront of promoting anti-Muslim, anti-Christian hate, bigotry, and speeches that incite violence.”
A spokesperson for Adams, Zachary Nosanchuk, said that while Adams’s attendance at the event was requested by organizers, “he never planned to attend and it was never on the Mayor’s public schedule.”